Esplouge
by Marie the Hedgecat
Summary: Tails has been kidnapped and it's up to Sonic and co. to find him before it's too late. Rated for language and violence.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: If you dislike fan characters, you may want to hit the "Back" button, as one of the main characters (and two others) is a fan character. You may have guessed from the title that my character's name is Esplouge (pronounced similarly to 'espionage'). The other two characters (Arcane and Blaze) appear in later chapters.

Disclaimer: The only things I own are the plot and Esplouge. Blaze the hedgehog belongs to Dark Dragon Kyra, and Arcane the albatross belongs to TigerOfTheSpear. The rest belongs to Sonic Team.

--

After being unconscious, dead in that void of nothingness, he could feel consciousness begin to return to him. His fingers twitched, a familiar tingling sensation ran down his arms. A headache began to surface and he felt dried blood down his back. Brief flashes danced across his mind, too quickly for him to fully catch what they were. He remembered something, but he wasn't quite sure what it was, or if it was something real or fake. But it was a memory of some sort.

His eyes finally opened, empty voids of red. He sat up with some difficulty and rubbed the back of his throbbing head.

"I was wondering... how long it would take," he muttered to himself, looking up at the sky. It was early in the morning and a little foggy. "It's about time."

He stood up awkwardly, took the time to get his legs used to walking again. He looked around, wondering where he was. Eventually, he spied one of Eggman's bases far in the distance. Factory smoke poured out of a few tall shafts, a sure sign that the base was still in use. Perfect.

He smirked. "Well, it looks like it's time to pay the old doctor a visit."

--

"Finally, after months of modifications, Metal Sonic is fixed!" Eggman praised himself, as he always seemed to do. "It's about time you..."

Eggman was cut off when the alarms began to sound. He looked to the monitors, sure that the security cameras had caught whoever was stupid enough to break into his base. A few of the cameras were out, but other than that, nothing was out of the ordinary.

"Metal Sonic, scan the area for intruders," Eggman ordered angrily. It was early in the morning, he had been working on Metal Sonic for the past eighteen hours... He wasn't in the mood for this.

Metal Sonic's eyes began to glow a bright red as he used his scanners. "My scanners detect that the intruder is an artificial life form. It is currently heading for this room."

"An artificial life form? Do you mean Shadow?"

"Yes and no. The creature has DNA similar to that of project Shadow's, but this creature is a fox."

Eggman froze. There was only one being he knew of that matched that description. But it had died almost a year ago. How in the world could it possibly be back, most likely destroying everything in the base? It didn't make sense.

"Where is it now?" the scientist asked urgently. When the robot didn't respond, Eggman grew impatient. "Where is it?!"

The door flew open, causing nearby shelves to fall over and break, their contents spilling all over the place. Eggman froze when he saw the brown fox standing in the doorway. The fox smirked.

"E- Esplouge..." Eggman muttered.

"I've come back, _Master Robotnik_," the fox sneered, taking a step into the room. He moved with a sense of boldness, as though nothing could hurt him, and although he was smirking, his eyes held an obscene amount of contempt for the scientist standing in front of him.

Eggman himself was in shock. He hadn't been expecting to see Esplouge again, especially after the last 'incident'.

"E- Esplouge!" he greeted, his voice shaking in his pathetic attempt at sounding happily surprised. "H- how good to see you again! So, how has it been these...?"

Esplouge's cold, red eyes narrowed angrily. "Shut the hell up before I rip out your vocal chords." He picked up a broken piece of one of the shelves and threw it past Eggman's face, close enough for it to cut the side of Eggman's face. The broken piece of wood hit the wall and fell at Metal Sonic's feet.

"You know how much I'd like that," Esplouge continued, smiling indifferently.

"No one threatens Doctor Eggman," Metal Sonic growled. "You must be terminated."

Esplouge laughed. "Aww... Don't remember me, do you?" He looked to Eggman, somewhat confused. "How'd your fancy robot get amnesia? Are you seriously _that_incompetent, Eggman?"

Eggman honestly was not sure how to answer the question.

"... Why are you here?" Eggman asked. "What do you want?"

"What do I want?" Esplouge seemed surprised that Eggman would ask such a question. "Isn't it obvious?" His expression darkened, his voice lowered. "I want you dead."

Metal Sonic stepped toward Esplouge threateningly. "Don't you _dare_threaten Doctor Eggman!"

Esplouge's glare shifted to Metal Sonic. He raced over to the robot, pinning Metal Sonic to the ground. "Shut _up!_"

"Esplouge, stop this!" Eggman ordered, receiving a death glare from the fox. "You're acting insane! Calm down!"

Esplouge stood up without a word, even going so far as to offer a hand to help Metal Sonic back up. Metal Sonic accepted and immediately regretted doing so. Esplouge grabbed Metal Sonic by the arm and ran toward Eggman. Esplouge forced the robot's razor- sharp claws into Eggman's chest and throat, twisting the robot's arms slightly to increase the pain. Eggman fell down, dead, while Esplouge merely smiled.

"No. _That's_ insane."

Metal Sonic backed away from his dead master, blood dripping off of his claws.

_His blood..._

He couldn't believe what just happened. His master couldn't be dead. He just couldn't. "M- Master...? Master, wake up! Please wake up! Master!"

Esplouge placed a hand on the robot's shoulder. "_Master_ is dead now," he explained, his voice showing absolutely no signs of regret. "You're just going to have to get used to it. It won't take too long."

"D- dead?" Metal Sonic asked, falling to his knees. "N- no. No. No, why would... ? Why would you... ? _Why?_"

"... That is no concern of yours, robot. What's done is done. Your master is gone and you'll just have to accept it."

Esplouge turned to leave, feeling Metal Sonic weakly punch his back. He back-slapped Metal Sonic angrily, forcing the robot down to its knees.

"Goodbye, robot."

And with that, Esplouge was off.

-

Tails' eyes shot open suddenly. His entire body shook uncontrollably as he began to remember bits and pieces of his dream.

_(It was raining heavily, and there was Esplouge in the distance, staring at him. They were alone, and Tails began to notice a familiar red liquid covering Esplouge's hands, and...)_

Esplouge couldn't be back. There was no way. Esplouge was dead, they all had seen it. It was just a dream, but it still gave him a bad feeling.

He got out of bed and walked over to his chaos emerald. It rested in its spot on his table, just as it had for the past couple of weeks. It was light blue, like his eyes. He remembered that whenever Esplouge was near a chaos emerald, the jewel would shine red instead of its natural color. The emeralds had stopped doing that after he died, of course.

However, a faint red light filled the room, its sourse the chaos emerald. Tails backed away from the jewel, frightened.

"S- Sonic... Sonic!"

The young fox ran through the house, screaming for his blue hero over and over. He ran downstairs to find Sonic sitting on the couch, annoyed with being woken up so early.

"Tails, what is it?" he asked, still half-asleep. "What in the world is _so_ important you just _had_ to wake me up at five in the morning?"

"E- Esplouge... Esplouge's back!" Tails explained, trying to stop himself from shaking.

Sonic gave Tails a surprised look. Esplouge couldn't be back. He had died almost a year ago. "What makes you think he's back? He died, we all saw his corpse, remember?"

"I... We were wrong. He's not dead."

"How do you know you're not wrong _now_? We all saw his body. You checked for his pulse yourself."

"Look, I don't want to argue with you, Sonic. I just want to know where I can find Shadow."

Sonic was confused. "Why do you want to find Shadow?"

"Don't you remember the last time Esplouge was here? He told me he only kidnapped me to lure you and Shadow there. He didn't seem to care much about killing you, but Shadow... Esplouge is _obsessed _with killing Shadow. He ranted to me about it all the time."

"Okay then. Shadow's usually around the outskirts of the city. You know, in the forest," Sonic explained. "Go there if you want, just don't act like a spaz, okay?"

Tails bolted out the door. Sonic laid back down on the couch, drifting slowly back to sleep. Or so he thought.

-

Tails was running as quickly as he could, trying to find Shadow before Esplouge could. It had begun to rain not long ago, and the rainfall just got heavier and heavier.

_(It was raining heavily, and there was Esplouge in the distance, staring at him.)_

He could barely see three feet in front of his face. When he finally reached the forest, he found Shadow resting on a low tree branch.

"Shadow!" Tails called, feeling guilty about bothering the hedgehog so early in the morning. But he knew this was more important. "Shadow, I have something important to tell you! Wake up!"

One of Shadow's eyes twitched open. He looked to the fox sleepily, yawning. "What is it?"

"Esplouge... Esplouge isn't dead," Tails explained, trying to catch his breath. The cold air wasn't helping in the least.

Shadow, who had appeared to be tired and unwilling to wake up just a moment ago, was now sitting up, looking more alert.

"I... I know you probably think I'm just being paranoid..." Tails gasped, still tired from his run. "But I'm sure of it. You believe me, don't you?"

Shadow let himself drop from the tree, landing somewhat awkwardly on tired feet. "Yes, I believe you. You would never lie about something so serious. But how can he still be alive?"

"I don't know," Tails admitted. "But... But he's... I'm scared. He's... He's going to try to kill you again. He's had eleven months to think of new plans. What if he succeeds this time? I don't want you to die, Shadow!"

"Calm down. Esplouge isn't that strong, I can take whatever he throws at me. You, however, should get back to Sonic as fast as you can. We don't want Esplouge kidnapping you _again_."

Tails nodded and was off again. When he got about halfway to his house, he heard a hollow laugh drown out the sound of the falling rain. He paused, not sure where the familiar laugh had come from.

_(It was raining heavily, and there was Esplouge in the distance, staring at him.)_

"E- Esplouge?" Tails asked timidly.

_Please just let this be my imagination playing tricks on me, please don't let him be here, please..._

_(They were alone, and Tails began to notice a familiar red liquid covering Esplouge's hands, and...)_

Esplouge walked up to Tails, almost seeming to appear from out of nowhere. His fur was soaked from the rain. Blood dripped from his gloves. A large smear of blood was around his mouth. Tails flinched at the sight. Esplouge simply smirked.

"Hello, Tails." His voice was cold and filled with hate.

It hadn't changed a bit.

"I was wondering when I'd see your face again." He brushed the bangs out of Tails' eyes and looked into them fiercly.

"Your scared, timid little face..." He laughed. "So, how's it been these past few months? Have you been thinking about me?"

He licked his blood-covered lips hungrily. Happily. Something Tails had gotten used to seeing eleven months ago when he was a hostage.

"I've been thinking about you, Tails," Esplouge continued, squeezing Tails' shoulder slightly, causing the smaller fox to flinch. "A lot. More than I've thought about Shadow and Sonic and everyone else _combined_."

Tails was horrified. How could anyone speak so calmly with blood smeared across their face? Esplouge's hand moved to Tails' cheek, the tips of his fingers on Tails' neck. Tails shivered and backed away.

"N- no... No, go away!" Tails pleaded. "I... I don't want to be a part of your plans!"

Esplouge's bloody hand reached out and seized Tails by the arm.

"Well that's too bad. Because you're coming with me, like it or not."

He pulled Tails closer to him, looking almost lecherously into Tails' wide, frightened eyes.

"I'm not going to repeat past mistakes."

He stroked Tails' chin with false affection, feeling Tails quiver at his touch. Just like old times.

"This time..." He licked his lips again and snickered. "This time, I'm going to kill Shadow."

_(And he just _knew_Esplouge was going to kill him...)_


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: See chapter one.

--

Tails began to scream as Esplouge dragged him away. Memories surfaced in his head, but none of them were memories he wanted to revisit.

_Esplouge's going to kill me this time, I just know it, he's going to...!_

"_No!_" Tails screamed, trying to slip his wrist out of Esplouge's grasp. "_No, no, I don't want to go with you!!_"

Esplouge repressed flinching from the loud volume of Tails' scream and scowled.

"Tails, you do realize that if you keep screaming, someone's bound to hear and come to see what's wrong. Then I'd be forced to kill them."

He grabbed Tails' shoulders, glaring into the smaller fox's eyes coldly. Tails stared back, frightened by everything he saw, including his own reflection in Esplouge's eyes.

"Do you understand that it would be _your_ fault? Do you realize you'd be endangering an innocent life? _Do you?!_"

Tails immediately stopped screaming. He continued to stare at Esplouge, silently pleading for this all to be some sort of sick, twisted dream.

"P- please... Please don't hurt anyone. I'll be good."

Esplouge seemed satisfied with the response, so he continued to drag Tails away.

"No one even _did _anything to you," Tails pointed out. "Why are you like this?"

"Why am I this way? What a stupid question. I would have thought _you_ of all people could figure it out. Try to think about it. If you use some logic, I'm sure you could figure it out."

"I... I'm confused."

"Think about the color of my fur. The way I act, killing set aside. Stuff like that."

"I still don't..."

"Maybe if you'd shut up, you could think better!" Esplouge growled. "I still can't stand your whiny little voice..."

"But my voice is a lot like yours," Tails pointed out.

"So is Shadow's, and I hate him more that you. ... That was a _hint_, Tails. A very _clear _hint. Just... Shut up and think about it."

"But...!"

Esplouge's hands were around Tails' throat tightly, nearly cutting off his supply of air.

"_I said shut up!_ If I hear your voice in the next hour, I swear I'll kill you!"

He glared at Tails, somewhat amused by the terrified expression on his face. He released Tails' throat and continued to drag him away.

"Anyway, you'll understand what I'm talking about in due time. You're annoying sometimes, but you're far from stupid."

--

Shadow had begun to show his true concern shortly after Tails left. He was pacing around under his tree, talking out loud to himself, knowing that there was no one nearby to hear him.

_Unless Esplouge..._

"No. No. He can't be back. He was dead, we all saw him. The dead can't come back..."

_(His lungs felt like they were on fire. He looked to Esplouge, wondering how such a young boy could be so strong. Esplouge was leaning against the wall, breathing rapidly. Blood covered his face, most of it his own. After a moment of rest, the fox stood up on his own, walked away from the wall. He snickered._

_"Are you finally beginning to understand?" Esplouge asked, walking toward the exhausted hedgehog. A yellow snake of energy ran down Esplouge's arm, similar to Shadow's chaos spear, but much weaker. _

_Shadow grabbed Esplouge's throat angrily. _

_"Why won't you die?!" _

_He looked to the many wounds in the fox's chest and face, surprised they hadn't already killed him._

_"Silly, silly fool," Esplouge mocked. "It takes a lot more than this to kill me. And what _can _kill me... Well, I don't stay down for long."_

_Shadow pinned Esplouge to the floor angrily, annoyed at how much the fox liked to speak in riddles. _

_"What do you mean?"_

_Esplouge smiled; some of the blood on Shadow's face was dripping onto his mouth. Esplouge licked the blood from his lips contently, happily, before speaking._

_"I've already died once before. I can take it again.")_

"If he wasn't kidding - or completely insane - then could it be possible...?"

Before he could get any further in his thoughts, a chao flew right at his face. He immediately recognized the chao as Cheese, Cream's companion. The young chao was frantically shouting meaningless gibberish to the hedgehog.

"Woah, calm down!" Shadow ordered. Cheese stopped shouting and gave Shadow a puzzled, frantic look. "Something's troubling you. I can see that. Show me what it is."

Cheese nodded in agreement and grabbed Shadow by the hand. He flew quickly to another part of the forest, a little farther away from the city. When he and Shadow arrived, the hedgehog gasped. Cream's lifeless body was sprawled on the ground, soaked with blood. There was a large hole in her chest over where her heart should have been.

"Who did this?" Shadow asked urgently. He knew it had to be Esplouge. Even Eggman wouldn't do something like this.

_But why would Esplouge kill Cream? He didn't even know her._

Cheese shrugged as a response, looking to his dead friend sadly.

"Damn it... It was probably that little freak. Come on, we're going to see Sonic and Tails about this."

--

Esplouge and Tails eventually reached a large building. Tails immediately recognized it as one of Eggman's previous bases. When he opened his mouth to state that, he was slapped across the face.

"_No talking!_" Esplouge shouted, immediately calming down. "You still have half an hour."

He led Tails into the building. It looked a lot different from the way it looked before. There were no more robots, for one thing. Most of the lights had been broken, and the smell of blood filled the air. Tails felt his stomach turn while Esplouge merely laughed to himself.

"Why does it smell like bl...?"

Esplouge glared and shoved Tails chest-first into the wall. "_What did I say about talking?_" He shoved his elbow into Tails' back, ignoring the resulting scream. He then dropped Tails and kicked him in the stomach, knocking the wind out of him. He let Tails lay there for a few moments before picking him back up, pinning him to the wall.

"I believe you remember the punishment."

Tails stared into Esplouge's eyes, horrified. "P- please don't... I'm s- sorry... _Please_...!"

Esplouge's grip on Tails' shoulders increased, his expression darkened. "Please _what?_ Please don't kill you?! _Why the hell should I do that?! Give me one goddamn reason!_"

"I... I won't try to escape," Tails offered, wondering if Esplouge would buy it. He felt relief wash over him when Esplouge loosened his grip, a thoughtful expression replacing the enraged one. As unpredictable as Esplouge was, that was usually a good sign.

"E- even if Sonic or Shadow come... I won't l- leave. I..." He paused, sure that Esplouge wouldn't buy it. "I promise."

"So... You won't struggle when I lock you in a cell this time? And you're not going to try to pick the lock again?"

Tails nodded hesitantly. He knew Esplouge saw through it.

_Why are you pretending to believe me?_

"... Very well," Esplouge agreed. He dropped Tails, grabbed his wrist gently, and led him to a cell. Esplouge opened the door and shoved Tails in. He entered as well and shut the door behind himself.

Esplouge licked his lips. Tails knew this wouldn't end well.


	3. Esplouge's Weakness

Tails remained on the ground, staring into Esplouge's eyes, frightened. All of the memories, everything Esplouge had done to him the last time... The memories flooded back into his mind, multiple brief flashes that filled him with fear and disgust. He couldn't even _begin _to imagine what Esplouge was planning to do to him.

Esplouge licked his lips hungrily, something Tails had grown used to seeing what felt like forever ago. Esplouge always did that when he felt excited about something, usually something associated with another's pain or death. Esplouge laughed to himself and grabbed Tails' shoulders roughly.

"It can be just like old times," Esplouge mused happily, his voice low. "I can hurt you. Torture you. Drink your sweet, sweet blood once again."

He licked his lips again and began to rub Tails' throat gently, feeling Tails flinch at his touch. It only served to excite him more.

"Your blood tastes like candy to me. Like mint candy."

Esplouge threw Tails at the wall suddenly and watched him collapse to the floor more from fear than pain. He grabbed Tails' throat, squoze with the tips of his claws. No blood, he wasn't trying to break the skin just yet.

"I like mint candy, Tails," Esplouge continued, smiling contently. He squoze Tails' throat harder. "You like it too, right?"

"Y- yeah..." Tails confirmed, somewhat confused by the conversation. "H- how did you know?"

Esplouge punched Tails in the stomach, smile still plastered on his face.

_Idiot._

"I don't want to answer that right now," he replied calmly. "Maybe later, if I remember. But for now... Well, I just want to hurt you."

Esplouge helped Tails stand up and pinned him to the wall. He could feel Tails shaking uncontrollably from fear. He laughed, finding Tails' fear amusing.

"D- don't... P- p- please don't hurt me..." Tails pleaded, his voice shaking. Esplouge squoze his throat tightly, threateningly, a silent instruction to stop talking. Tails yelped, but other than that, didn't make a sound.

"I can't," Esplouge explained, sounding a bit more angry. "I can't stop hurting you. It's like an addiction. A drug. Your pain is my drug, Tails. And I'm not ready to come off of it. It makes me too happy."

He shoved Tails into the wall, causing the young fox to yelp.

"Your pain makes me feel _happy_."

"Th- then... A- are you going to kill me?" Tails asked, horrified at the thought. Esplouge had threatened his life many times before, but never carried any of those threats out. At least not yet.

"Th- that would make you _really_happy, righ...?"

Esplouge slapped Tails across the face, digging under the skin with his claws. Tails' nose and cheek started to bleed. He looked to Esplouge, terrified, and noticed that Esplouge was glaring daggers at him, shaking from anger.

"I would _never_,"

Esplouge slapped Tails again

"_Ever,_"

and again

"_**Ever**_ kill you! _How could you possibly think that?! How many times have I made that clear by now, hunh?! Do you __**ever**__ listen to one goddamn word I say?!_"

He threw Tails to the ground violently, punched him in the chest, knocking the wind out of him.

"_**Do you?!**_"

Tails felt himself shaking. He hadn't expected Esplouge to react so violently to such a simple question. He felt Esplouge touch his face gently, rubbing his bleeding cheek. Esplouge was talking, but Tails couldn't make out the words for a few minutes.

"Tails, did I hurt you too badly?" Esplouge asked, his voice full of concern. His concern sounded forced but genuine. "Tails, answer me. Answer me!"

He rubbed Tails' cheek again, looked to his glove, and licked the blood off, smiling like a little kid in a candy shop. However, his attention turned back to Tails fairly quickly.

"Tails...? Can you hear me? Are you listening to me? Are you? Tails?"

Tails finally nodded, still shaking. After eleven months, he wasn't sure if he could get used to this all over again. "Y- you just... Wh- why did you...?"

"Because you should know by now that I would never _kill_ you. I can torture you, hurt you, scare the living hell out of you, but... I just can't..."

Esplouge glared suddenly and wrapped his fingers around Tails' throat, not allowing him to breathe. He waited there a moment, inhaled deeply, and let go.

"I'm leaving now."

Esplouge got up and left without another word, leaving Tails puzzled and frightened out of his mind.

--

A little way down the corridor, Esplouge met up with a red and yellow hedgehog. The hedgehog glared daggers at him. Esplouge seemed puzzled.

"What did I do?" Esplouge asked, honestly not caring much. Other people's feelings never concerned him.

"You were hurting that kid," the hedgehog growled, disgusted.

"Oh, you saw?" Esplouge asked, amused at the hedgehog's disgust. "In case you haven't noticed, Blaze, I hurt people all the time."

"But he's just a _child_," Blaze pointed out. "I can understand the kidnapping, but... Couldn't you at least go a little easier on him?"

"In case you haven't noticed, _I_ am a child. People don't 'go easy' on me, because if they did, I'd snap their filthy necks. Besides, I'm not going to _kill_ him or anything. It's all just to scare him."

"Sure, but what if you _do_ kill him sometime? By accident. What if you get really mad and end up killing him? What would you do then?"

Esplouge glared. He opened his mouth to protest, but shut it quickly, not sure of what to say.

"What were you two talking about, anyway?" Blaze questioned.

"It's none of your business," Esplouge growled. Personal questions always seemed to piss him off, Blaze noticed. "And what about my chaos emeralds? That's the only thing you should be worried about right now. You haven't forgotten our deal, have you?"

Blaze glared and folded his arms across his chest. "You seem to have forgotten that our deal does _not_ include me being your servant. We're supposed to be _equal_ in this, remember?"

Esplouge glared, clenched his fists. "Just... Get my damn emeralds."

"What's the magic word?"

"... Or else." Esplouge began to walk away. "Just do what I say, Blaze."

--

Blaze wandered through the outskirts of the city, looking for a chaos emerald. The rain had stopped and it was beginning to become really sunny. He enjoyed the sunny weather, but he was beginning to get sick of Esplouge.

"Why is he so bossy?" Blaze asked himself as he sat down, taking a break. "And why is he so lazy? He could easily look for the stupid emeralds himself. And why does he act so cruely toward that child?"

As he began to zone out in thought, a red glint caught his eye. He stood up and ran over to it, discovering it to be the red chaos emerald. He picked it up and looked it over.

"This should calm him down for a while."

--

Sonic looked to the kitchen, the place where he had heard a crash from just moments before. He paused when he saw who was standing there. Metal Sonic. The robot was shaking awkwardly as though he were malfunctioning. Sonic was immediatly prepared for a fight.

"What the heck do you want?" Sonic questioned angrily. He was _not_ in the mood for a fight this early in the morning.

Metal Sonic grabbed his counterpart's shoulders weakly, staring into his eyes in a way that resembled sadness. "Someone murdered my master earlier this morning."

Sonic stared at the robot for a moment, completely shocked. Who in the world would kill Eggman? The only person he could think of who would do such a thing was...

Sonic grabbed the robot's shoulders, startling him. "Who was it? _Who killed Eggman_?!"

"A... A brown fox that I've never seen before," Metal Sonic explained. "He had DNA similar to that of Shadow and Tails. My master seemed to know him. He called the fox Esplouge."

Sonic felt the blood drain from his face. Tails really wasn't being paranoid, Esplouge really was back. And if Tails were to be all alone, there would be nothing to stop Esplouge from simply grabbing him off the street.

"We have to find him _now_!" Sonic exclaimed, racing to the door, the robot following like a puppy. When Sonic opened the door, he was met with the sight of Shadow with a familiar chao perched on his shoulder. "Hey, Shadow, what's up... Wait. Where's Tails?"

Shadow looked confused. "Didn't he come back here? I came here to tell you guys that Cream's been killed. I'm assuming Esplouge is behind it."

Sonic was in too much shock to speak. He just stood there, shaking, a look of terror on his face. Metal Sonic stood between him and Shadow, knowing how much the two fought.

"Do you think he captured Tails?" the robot asked.

Shadow looked to the ground, feeling guilty. He _knew _he should have walked Tails home. "We should find him before Esplouge gets too far in whatever he's planning."

"Should I get help? We could get Amy and Knuckles, they're pretty tough," Metal Sonic pointed out, trying to make himself useful.

"Rouge could help, too," Shadow added. "Rouge helped out the last time. And Amy and Knuckles helped a bit as well."

"Is there anyone else?" Metal Sonic asked. "I can go get them for you."

"No. Just the three of them will do," Shadow said. "No one else needs to be dragged into this."

Metal Sonic nodded and raced out the door.

"We're going to kill him this time," Sonic muttered, finally finding his voice again. "He's not going to get away with this again. We're going to make sure he dies this time."

--

Blaze returned to the base, emerald in hand. He found Esplouge sitting alone in a room. The walls of the room had smears of blood randomly scattered about. Esplouge was holding a shard of glass, cutting lightly into his arm, just enough to bleed. He watched the blood flow out, seeming content. He was humming to himself, although Blaze couldn't identify the song.

"Wh... What are you doing?" the hedgehog asked, forgetting all about the emerald.

Esplouge looked to Blaze, startled. "It's none of your business." His voice was eerily calm, almost as if he was in a trance. "Did you find one of my chaos emeralds?"

Blaze remained silent, looking around the room. Where in the world had all of that blood come from? Esplouge impaitently looked to Blaze's hand and gasped. Blaze looked back to Esplouge, confused.

"Get that away from me," Esplouge ordered quickly, backing away.

"What? Why?" Blaze asked, stepping toward Esplouge. "You told me you wanted the chaos emeralds. I thought that meant _all_ of them."

Esplouge began to quiver, a sight that confused Blaze greatly. Why was he so afraid of the jewel? It was just a chaos emerald, no different from the other six.

"N- not that one," Esplouge stuttered, hiding pathetically behind a chair. Like the walls, the chair had many blood smears. "Please. Take it away. _Please!_"

Blaze stared at Esplouge in total shock, almost dropping the emerald. Esplouge had never said 'please' before. He always ordered people around, never asked them _politely_ to do anything for him. This was unbelievable.

"Esplouge? Are you crying?"

Sure enough, small tears darted down the fox's cheeks. Esplouge was shielding his face, not wanting Blaze to see his tears.

"Blaze, I said please," Esplouge whined, refusing to look the hedgehog in the face. "I'm asking you _nicely_, aren't I? What more do you want?"

"Esplouge, it won't bite," Blaze explained tauntingly, fairly amused by Esplouge's strange behavior. "It's just a little chaos emerald. You told me yourself you wanted all of them." He took another step toward Esplouge, and again, Esplouge backed away. "Don't you remember saying that you wanted _all_ of them?"

"Blaze, don't get that thing near me!" Esplouge yelled. "Take it away! Destroy it! I don't care what you do with it, _just keep it the hell away from me!_"

Blaze began to feel annoyed. Again, the fox was ordering him around, treating him more like a lackey than an ally.

"Destroy it yourself if you're so damn powerful!" he snapped, throwing the emerald at Esplouge angrily.

The emerald began to glow a violent red, engulfing the room in its light. Esplouge screamed, feeling a burning pain run through his body. It felt like the very life in him was slowly being ripped out. He curled up in a pitiful attempt to protect himself from the pain, screaming as if being tortured. Blaze just stared in shock, not a clue as to what was happening. He paused for a moment before grabbing the emerald and throwing it out of the room. The glow stopped and Esplouge uncurled slowly, shaking, tears rolling freely down his cheeks.

_It hurts... It hurts..._

"What the heck just happened?" Blaze asked.

Esplouge forced himself to stand up, his legs shaking under his weight. He glared at Blaze furiously, snarling. "_**What the hell was that for?**_" Blaze had never seen him so angry before. "_**I told you not to get that thing near me!**_" Although he was glaring, the tears wouldn't stop running down his cheeks. "_**Take it away! Right now!!**_"

Esplouge slapped Blaze, only to receive one back, nearly knocking him over. He stared at the hedgehog angrily, rubbing his cheek, while Blaze seemed unharmed.

"No," Blaze refused angrily, grabbing Esplouge's wrist threateningly. "I'm not going to listen to you anymore if you keep acting like a spoiled brat."

"Y- you bastard..." Esplouge growled, trying to pull away from the hedgehog.

"Things would be so much easier if we worked as a team, wouldn't they? If you stopped acting like a little egomaniac all the time, we'd actually be able to get something accomplished! I'll take the emerald away for you. But I expect you to stop acting like a brat all the time. Deal?"

Blaze let go of Esplouge's wrist. The fox stared for a moment, looking uneasily to the emerald lying on the floor in the hallway.

_Damn it..._

He hated not getting his way.

"Sure," he agreed grumpily. "I guess I could give having a real ally a try."

Blaze half smiled and went to pick up the emerald. Esplouge stared at the ground a few moments before speaking.

"B- Blaze?"

Blaze looked back to Esplouge, holding the emerald he had just picked up. "Hmm?"

"N- nevermind..."


	4. Instability

Esplouge remained in the room for a long while afterwords, staring at the bloody wall, a look of horror on his face. His hands were shaking uncontrollably, but he didn't notice.

"No... No! _No!_"

The horror contorted to fury immediately. He punched the wall angrily, wishing it was thin enough to dent. He screamed and punched it again and again, over and over.

"No! _No! __**No no no no fuck no!**_"

He slumped to the ground, staring at the wall angrily. His glass shard found its way to his hand. He didn't remember picking it up. After a moment of hesitation, he dug the shard into his arm over and over, this time intending to hurt himself.

"_This- can't- be- fucking- happening_!"

--

Metal Sonic arrived at Amy's house first. He knocked on the door hesitantly, remembering her large hammer and short temper. Part of him was doubting she'd even believe him. After all, there had been plenty of instances in the past where he had kidnapped her for his late master.

"Maybe this _wasn't_ such a good idea..."

Amy answered the door, staring at the robot.

"Uh... Hi?" she greeted, wondering why Metal Sonic would knock on the door instead of crashing through her wall as he had done dozens of times before.

"... Sonic and Shadow sent me," the robot explained bluntly.

Amy paused for a moment. "This is defiantly Eggman's _worst_ attempt yet. I think he's having an off-day."

Metal Sonic flinched at his departed master's name. He suddenly found himself unable to look at Amy's eyes, instead contenting himself with the ground at his own feet.

"My master is dead."

"What?" Amy sounded genuinely concerned. "What happened?" She was still cautious of the robot, but she was sure he wouldn't lie about something like _this_.

"Someone... A fox named Esplouge killed him," Metal Sonic explained.

"_What?!_" Amy ran back into her house, grabbed her hammer, and bolted out the door, dragging Metal Sonic along with her. "We need to go tell Sonic!"

"I already told him. He and Shadow told me to get you, Knuckles, and Rouge."

And with that, they were off to Rouge's place.

--

"I can't stand just waiting here," Sonic muttered. He was sitting on the couch while Shadow was standing by the window, watching for Metal Sonic. "Tails is probably being killed right now, and all we're doing is sitting around and waiting!"

"Calm down," Shadow ordered coolly. "Tails is the _last _person Esplouge would kill."

"How the hell can you be sure of that?" Sonic asked frantically. He was shaking now, almost to the point of crying. "Esplouge is insane, we have no idea what he's going to do to Tails! He... He could..."

"Sonic, shut up already!" Shadow snapped, finally looking to the blue hedgehog. "Esplouge would _never_ kill Tails. He told me so himself."

"What? When?"

"The... While we were fighting. Before he 'died'. He went on and on about how he 'took care' of Tails and would 'never let anything hurt him'." _Aside from the occasional 'outburst'._ "... Didn't you talk to Tails about it?"

Sonic shook his head. "I didn't want to make him relive it," he explained solemnly.

Shadow walked over and sat down next to Sonic.

"Tails is tougher than you think. He can take anything Esplouge throws at him." He laid back, relaxing on the couch, staring at the ceiling. "We're going to get Tails back here, safe and sound." He glared, thinking of Esplouge. "Then we're going to kill that smug little bastard for good and make sure he _never_ has a chance to hurt Tails again."

Sonic nodded, looking at his shoes. He remained silent, not wanting to talk anymore. Shadow got the clue and walked back to the window.

--

Esplouge laid in a pool of his own blood, limbs outstretched, staring at the ceiling. The shard of glass was by his left hand, just out of reach. He inhaled deeply, feeling relaxed regardless of the damage he did to his arms. He ignored the pain. It wasn't important to him. He laughed, looking to his arms contently.

"If Tails saw me like this, he'd probably have a panic attack."

He laughed again, tried to sit up. He succeeded in standing after a few minutes. His arms hung uselessly by his side, hardly able to do anything else.

"Maybe I should go talk to him. Or..." He smiled snickering. "Maybe I should force him to taste my blood."

He walked out of the room and down the hallway. When he got to Tails, the smaller fox began panicking, just as he expected.

_So predictable._

"Y- your arms! W- what the...? What h- happened?"

Esplouge smiled, gripping the one of the bars to the sell as if trying to crush it. "I got _really_ angry at myself for a few minutes. It's okay, though. It'll heal eventually, quicker if Blaze ever brings me my damn emeralds. You should see the _lake _of blood it left in one of the rooms back there. You'd have night terrors for a week..."

Esplouge began to feel light-headed all of a sudden. He collapsed, unconscious. Tails began to panic again.

"Esplouge? _Esplouge? Wake up! __**Esplouge!**_"

--

Blaze returned to the base after a while, with a new chaos emerald. When he heard Tails' frantic cries, he rushed over to the young fox to find Esplouge unconscious, arms mutilated, in a small pool of blood. Tails was shaking and crying, still locked in his cell.

"What the hell...?" Blaze asked, looking to Tails, puzzled.

"E- Esplouge," Tails stuttered, unable to form anymore coherent words for a few moments. "You have to help him!"

Blaze stared for a moment, unsure of what to do. He opened the door to the cell before picking up Esplouge's limp body. Tails stood there, staring at Esplouge, worried.

"I want to help him..." Tails muttered, just loud enough for Blaze to hear.

"You should leave," Blaze explained, picking up Esplouge's body with ease. Esplouge sure was light.

"But... I have to help him," Tails repeated.

Blaze half carried, half dragged Esplouge's body down the corridor. Tails followed, regardless of Blaze's request that he leave.

--

Blaze threw Esplouge' corpse-like body onto an uncomfortable looking bed. Tails sat down on the floor next to the bed while Blaze left to find some bandages for Esplouge's arms.

"Ffffuck..." Esplouge had begun talking in his sleep a short while ago, occasionally swearing or saying things that made no sence at all. "Does... n't..."

"Esplouge?" Tails asked, feeling Esplouge's fingers curl loosely around his shoulder. "A- are you waking up?"

"Can... n't... S- stop... No..."

Esplouge's hands had begun to quiver slightly. Tails just sat there.

"Why did you do this to yourself?" Tails asked, not expecting a response. "You never hurt yourself before except... When you 'died'. Shadow told me that you..."

Blaze walked back into the room, holding rolls of bandages. He stared at Esplouge for a moment, grinning mischievously.

"... I say we wrap him up like a mummy."

"He'll kill us if we do that," Tails pointed out. "And if he wakes up while I'm in here..."

"Relax, kid. I'll protect you."

Tails looked skeptical. He wasn't sure if he could trust strangers right then, especially if they associated themselves with Esplouge.

"My name's not _kid_, it's _Tails_."

"Oh. Well, nice to meet you, Tails. My name's Blaze." He smiled, trying to act friendly.

"I... feel... ch- chaos...." Esplouge muttered, still unconscious. His grip on Tails' shoulder increased. "Em... r... ald....sss"

"What? Chaos emerald?" Tails asked, looking to Esplouge.

"Oh yeah..." Blaze held out his chaos emerald, which immediatly began to glow a faint red color, regardless of being purple. Blaze looked confused. "Red?"

"All of the emeralds do that when they're near him," Tails explained, motioning to Esplouge.

"Why?"

Tails shrugged. "Esplouge said that only he and Eggman know why. He got really mad when I asked him."

He remembered asking Esplouge about it eleven months ago. He also remember being slapped afterwords.

He looked back to Esplouge, staring at the older fox's mutilated arms.

"... Can I borrow the emerald for a minute?"

Blaze handed the emerald to Tails without much thought. Tails held the emerald close to Esplouge, but nothing happened aside from the emerald glowing a little brighter.

"Hmm... I thought the emeralds could heal him if they make him stronger," Tails muttered. "I guess I was..."

Esplouge's hand immediately lashed out, his fingers wrapping around the jewel tightly. Tails jumped slightly, let go of the emerald, and backed away.

"Em... er... ald... Yessssss....."

The emerald began to glow brighter. Esplouge laughed weakly. Tails immediately hid behind Blaze.

"P- please don't let Esplouge hurt me again, Blaze," Tails pleaded.

The emerald stopped glowing just as Esplouge's laugh subsided. The emerald fell to the floor.

"Pow... power..." Esplouge muttered, laughing even weaker than before.

"I think he's still unconscious," Blaze explained. He touched Esplouge's forehead for a moment before retreating his hand. "He feels a little warmer than he did a minute ago..."

Tails touched Esplouge's forehead curiously and felt as if he was touching a fire. He yelped and retreated his hand quickly.

"He's burning up!"

Without another word, Tails ran out of the room to get some cold water and towels to bring Esplouge's temperature down.

Esplouge's eyes opened a little. He looked to Blaze.

"Get... t away... now..."

Blaze stared at Esplouge, confused. "What?"

"B- burn... Pain... Red... em... er..."

Blaze paused for a moment, a calm expression replacing the confused one. He pulled the red emerald out of his pocket, keeping it a safe distance from Esplouge.

"Oh, you mean this?"


	5. Chapter 5

_What in the world?_

Esplouge glared at the emerald, his eyes still barely able to open. Why in the world had Blaze kept it? And even worse, what was Blaze going to do to him? They were alone, and as far as Esplouge knew, Tails was still in his cell. Blaze could easily kill him if he wanted to.

"I kept it for a few reasons," Blaze explained calmly, knowing he had the upper hand. "First of all, I wanted to make sure you wouldn't hurt the kid again. And second, I wanted to make sure you remembered the conditions of our little deal. You seem to be forgetting them."

"I... I rem... ber them..." Esplouge still couldn't speak very well. His entire body was shaking.

"Well, you haven't been acting like it," Blaze continued. "For one thing, we're supposed to be _equal_, yet you seem to enjoy bossing me around all the time. Another thing, I'm beginning to doubt you have those powers you spoke of. You said that the chaos emeralds made you extremely powerful, yet this one that I'm holding sends you into a writhing fit."

"Shut up..." A harsh whisper. He couldn't manage anything else. The entire room seemed to be getting hotter and hotter with each passing second.

"No, I won't. As I said, you and I are supposed to be _equal_. Seriously, you act like a spoiled brat. And..."

"Stop it... Stop talking..."

"What, am I telling you all those things you don't want to hear? Get over yourself, Esplouge. I'm telling you exactly how you act. If it's not what you want to hear, that's too bad."

Esplouge pulled the pillow over his ears, trying to block Blaze out. He didn't feel like being around any kind of noise at the moment.

_My head feels like it's going to explode..._

"... Esplouge, I doubt a pillow is going to block anything out."

"Woul... you jus... go away?"

"No. I'm going to stay here as long as it takes for me to get some sense into you. As much as you don't want to admit it, you need it."

"Later...?"

"No, not later. You need this _now_."

"...'m not asking..."

"I don't care."

_Why is Blaze so persistent?_

"...I ... 'nt feel... well..."

"I don't care that you don't feel well. You should think about those things while you're bossing me around, shouldn't you?"

Esplouge felt the temperature plummet.

"...'m cold..."

"Cold?" Blaze asked. "You have a blanket, and this room seems warm enough. Stop trying to divert my attention."

Esplouge curled up, pulling the paper-thin blanket around him. Why was the room so cold all of a sudden?

"Go away..."

"Esplouge, for the last time, _no_. I'm not going away until you stop acting like such a brat. And when you tell me what's up with you and the chaos emeralds."

Esplouge couldn't keep his eyes open. He struggled, but felt himself falling back into unconsciousness.

"Goddamn it, don't pass out on me now. Esplouge, are you still awake?"

Eslpouge couldn't respond. Blaze cursed under his breath and kicked a chair over out of annoyance.

"Damn it, why'd he have to...?"

Blaze heard approaching footsteps. He immediately turned to the door, ready to attack, until he saw Tails walking in.

"Is Esplouge okay?" Tails asked, his voice filled with concern. He set down the water and towels he was holding and immediately ran to Esplouge's side. He felt Esplouge's forehead and immediately pulled his hand back. "I think he's getting worse."

"Esplouge said he was cold."

"Do you think I should get more blankets?"

"If you think it'll help."

Tails nodded and ran out the door again.

--

Metal Sonic returned after a few hours, being dragged along by Knuckles. Following were Rouge, Amy, and an unfamiliar albatross. Shadow scowled when he saw the albatross. He felt he had been perfectly clear when he said he didn't want to drag anyone else into anything. Nevertheless, he still opened the door to let them all in.

"Seriously, the _one time_ he..." Metal Sonic began.

"Shadow, what the hell is this all about?" Knuckles asked angrily. Apparently he didn't trust the robot. "I know I'm sometimes pretty easy to trick, but even I know..."

"Sometimes?" Rouge asked sarcastically.

"Knuckles, it's not a trick," Sonic explained, forcing himself to get up and talk to everyone who just arrived. "Esplouge is back. And he has Tails."

"See? I told you, you stupid echidna!" Metal Sonic exclaimed, now trying to wriggle out of Knuckles' grasp. "Now let. Me. Go!"

Without warning, Knuckles let go of Metal Sonic, causing the struggling robot to fall.

"But... There's no way..."

"Apparently there is, because he's back!" Sonic argued, tears brimming in his eyes.

Amy immediately ran to Sonic and gave him a comforting hug. "Sonic, it'll be okay. We'll get Tails back just like we did last time."

"And then what? Esplouge'll just come back again!"

"Wouldn't it be wiser if we all went inside?" Metal Sonic asked. "What if Esplouge is nearby?"

"I thought you could recognize him by his DNA!" Sonic snapped. "You'll know if he's nearby!"

"I... It was only a suggestion," Metal Sonic replied coolly. "Besides, wouldn't the others prefer to sit rather than stand?"

Sonic opened his mouth to speak, but before any words came out, Rouge cut him off.

"Actually, that sounds nice."

Sonic sighed angrily and stepped out of the way (Amy still clinging to him) to allow the others to enter as well. Everyone made their way to a chair or the couch, while Shadow stayed behind with Metal Sonic.

"Hey," Shadow began in a low voice so the others wouldn't hear, "didn't I tell you not to drag anyone else in?"

"Yes," Metal Sonic answered as he closed the door. "But Amy thought he might be able to help. You know how Amy is, she meets someone new and wants to take them on adventures and whatnot. She's pretty good at judging people's character, so I thought it'd be okay if we let Arcane - that's the albatross' name- tag along."

"Do you have _any_ idea what kind of danger we'd put him though?"

"I didn't really think about that. But he could always help with planning, couldn't he? We don't have any ideas how to rescue Tails yet, do we? We don't even know where Esplouge is right now."

"I guess you're right," Shadow agreed. "He can help with planning. But that's it."

--

Tails returned a few minutes later with an armful of blankets. Blaze had left, leaving the red chaos emerald on a desk near the door. Tails looked to the emerald curiously for a moment before his attention turned back to Esplouge.

"E- Esplouge? Are you awake?"

Esplouge didn't respond. Tails walked to him cautiously and began to cover him with the blankets. The fever seemed to have gone down a little, but Esplouge still felt a little warm.

"Seriously, why did you do this to yourself?" Tails asked. He had just realized that he had forgotten to wrap up Esplouge's arms. "Shoot..."

Tails went over to the towels and water and poured some of the water on one of the towels. He went back to Esplouge and began to clean the cuts on his arms.

"What in the world was going through your head?"

"Didn't I already say it?" Esplouge asked quietly, his voice barely there at all. "I was angry at myself."

Tails jumped, dropping the towel.

"I... I thought you were...!"

"I thought you were in your cell," Esplouge cut in. "But instead, here you are. Cleaning out my wounds." His eyes still wouldn't open. "Why do you care about me, Tails?"

"I... I don't really know," Tails admitted.

"That's pretty stupid. You should be rubbing lemon juice into my wounds, not cleaning them out."

"I don't do things like that."

"Well, you should. You should kill me right now. You could, you know."

Tails stared at Esplouge, a mixture of confusion and horror on his face.

"Why... Why would you say that?" Tails asked, horrified.

"I'm just telling you what I think the smartest move would be, from your position," Esplouge explained. "I'm not telling you to take my advice. I'm just giving you my opinion. If you don't want to, we'll both be happy. But if you want to, go right ahead. I don't really mind."

_What in the world is he saying?_

"Hey, I don't hear Blaze anymore."

"What?"

"Blaze. Did he leave or is he just being quiet?"

"He left. I'm not really sure where he went, though," Tails explained. He went back to cleaning  
Esplouge's wounds. "I can go look for him in a minute, if you want."

"Nah. I was just curious. Actually, I'd prefer it if you stayed away from him."

Nervousness hit again. "W- why is that?"

"I don't really trust him yet," Esplouge explained. "I guess I'm really in no position to stop you, though. I can't even open my eyes. ... I'm thirsty."

"W- What? Uh..." Tails ran to get one of the glasses of water he had brought in. "... I- I have some water for you, but..."

"I don't suppose you have a straw, do you?"

"N- no. I could go look for..."

"No. You're not allowed to leave this building, and there aren't any straws in here. It never occurred to me... Actually, you're supposed to be in your cell. Why aren't you there?"

"Blaze let me out because I wanted to help you."

"Okay."

_'Okay?' That's it? No threats or anything? That's unlike him..._

"I guess I could always drink later," Esplouge continued.

"What?"

"The water. I'll have it later. I don't really feel like sitting up at the moment, not that I could anyway, and I think you'd be a little paranoid if I asked you to just pour it down my throat."

"Oh." Tails set the water back down. "Okay then." He proceeded to wrap up Esplouge's arms.

"Don't. They'll heal on their own."

"I'm just trying to..."

"I know, I know. I don't really care. It's cute that you want to help me and all, but seriously, I'm not _that_ pathetic right now."

"I'm not saying you're pathetic, I just want to make sure you..."

"Tails, shut up. Seriously, I don't care. ... Did you put more blankets on here?"

It always surprised Tails how suddenly Esplouge could change the subject.

"Y- yes."

"I guess I should thank you. I'm not really sure how to, though."

"You could let me go back home," Tails suggested hopefully.

"Oh wait, I've got it," Esplouge cut in, ignoring Tails entirely. "Do you remember that thing we were talking about earlier?"

"What? What thing?"

"When you asked why I act the way I do. While I was taking you here, you asked me that, remember?"

"Oh... Oh yeah. I remember."

"I could give you a few hints. I'm sure you could use them."

"S- sure. Okay." Tails sat down next to Esplouge. "I'd... I'd like a hint."

"Mmmkay. Let's see... Well, you already know that I like mint candy, and that'd probably be a pointless hint anyway... And I already gave you a hint about my voice... I can't really think of anything else now that I... Hmm... Oh! Wait, no, that'd be a better hint for Shadow than for you."

"What is it?"

"... I really like the name Maria. That's the hint. I'm not really sure if you'll get that, since that's more Shadow's thing. I really want to give you a better hint than that. Let's see... I... like computers. That's a crappy hint. You know what? I'll just give you the hint later. I'm having a little trouble thinking right now."

"Oh. Okay, then. Do you think you should rest?"

"What? Why?"

"Well, you seem tired, and I think it'll make you feel better."

"... I don't like to sleep."

"Why?"

_The inability to tell the difference between dream and reality, being all alone when I..._

"I just don't. Besides, you'll just run off."

"No, I won't. I promise."

"I'll sleep later, then."

"Esplouge..."

"I'm bored. ... Well, since we're sharing this moment and all, why don't you tell me what happened while I was gone? I'm sure something interesting must have happened."

"Well, Eggman attacked a few more times."

Esplouge wished he had enough energy to smirk. Eggman's blood had tasted so good...

Or was that a dream?

"Yeah, that's not a shock," Esplouge commented. "Anything surprising happen? Any new allies I should be worried about?"

"... Are you asking me to betray my friends?"

"No. I'm just curious. ... I asked if you had any new allies. It's a yes or no question. It's not like I'm asking you to go into detail about strengths and weaknesses or anything."

"Well, we met this new girl. Her name's Cream."

"What's she like?"

"She's really nice. She's actually a lot better at fighting than she looks, although it's really hard for her to get motivated."

"... Actually, I was wondering what species she was. And her age. Stuff like that."

"Why?"

"I told you already. I'm bored and curious."

"Okay... Well, she's a rabbit. And she's six."

_A six-year-old rabbit? That sounds a little familiar..._

"Did she have a chao with her?"

"_W- what?!_ H- how did you...?!"

"Her blood tasted so delicious. Pure."

Tails felt the blood slowly drain from his face.

_"W- wh- what?_"

"But she died so quickly. Didn't even put up a challenge."

"Y- you... You..."

Esplouge's eyes opened slightly. He managed a small smirk.

"Did you like her?"

"Of course, she was my friend, you...!"

"No, I mean did you _like_ her?"

"What? N- no!"

"That's good. I didn't think you knew her, so I just ate her heart. If I had known you knew her, I would have saved her heart in a jar for you. But I guess it's okay, since you didn't like her _that _much."

Tails began to feel nauseous.

"That's sick..."

"Bet you want to kill me now, don't you?"

"W- what?"

"Come on. My eyes are barely able to stay open. Do you have any idea how easy it'd be to kill me right now?"

"I'm not going to..."

"I know." He grabbed Tails' wrist weakly, barely able to move his own hand. "I know."

"Let me go."

"You wanted me to sleep, right?"

"What? Stop changing the subject!"

"You told me I should rest, Tails."

Tails easily slipped his hand out of Esplouge's grasp.

"Leave me alone, Esplouge."

Esplouge glared. Even in his weakened state, his glares were frightening. He weakly grabbed Tails around the middle and clung, trying not to fall.

"You can't tell me what to do, _Miles_."

"W- wha...?! How do you know my real name?!"

Esplouge smirked. "It's a _hint_."

Esplouge pulled Tails down onto the bed with some difficulty. Tails just laid there, confused, while Esplouge laid at his side.

"... I just want you to stay here with me until I go to sleep. Okay, Tails?"

Tails got up and backed away.

"No. _No._"

"Very well. I'll kill you if you plan on escaping. But you probably know that."

Esplouge curled up in the blankets again, making himself look almost like a normal child. Almost. Tails continued to back out of the room. When he got to the door, he scooped up the red chaos emerald and left quickly. Esplouge, who had been watching, smirked.

"I should have guessed he'd be stupid enough to keep it away from me," Esplouge muttered under his breath. He got out of the bed, feeling his energy returning to him slowly. After a few minutes, he was fully capable of walking again. He walked out of the room quietly.

"I wonder what Miss Rose is up to right now?" He asked himself quietly. "It's been a while since our last 'chat'."


	6. Chapter 6

Esplouge snuck around the base, trying to get to the door without Blaze or Tails noticing. He wasn't in the mood to talk to either of them. At the moment, he was only interested in finding Amy.

_That bastard..._

He was still furious at Blaze for keeping the red emerald around. How in the world could Blaze betray his trust like that?

_Speak of the devil..._

Blaze was walking toward him, looking fairly confused.

"Where are you going?" Blaze asked. "You sill seem sort of..."

"Leave me alone."

"Are you _still_ mad at me for keeping the emerald?" Blaze asked. "I just wanted to make sure you wouldn't hurt the kid. You can't really blame me for that."

Esplouge glared at Blaze for a moment.

"You failed."

"What? What are you talking about?"

"He's dead," Esplouge muttered darkly.

_Fall for it, you bastard._

"_W- what?!_"

"He was bugging me, so I killed him."

_Yeah, now go to his aid and leave me alone._

Blaze looked skeptical. "You're lying," he challenged.

"N- no I'm not."

_Am I really that bad at lying?_

"Yes you are. You don't have that look. You always get this creepy look when you talk about people you've killed. Like that girl."

Esplouge glared.

"... Fine, so I'm lying. Could you go away now? I've got somewhere to be."

Esplouge started to walk past Blaze, only to have his arm grabbed by the hedgehog. He winced from pain the moment he felt Blaze's unusually warm hands on his open wounds, but otherwise remained rather calm.

"You're not going anywhere."

Esplouge calmly faced away from Blaze. He wasn't in the mood for this, but he also wasn't in the mood for a fight. "Why is that?"

"You look like you're about to pass out again. You need to stay here for a little while before..."

"No. I'm going _now_." Esplouge tried to pull his arm away. "You're not the boss of me."

Blaze let go of Esplouge's arm, causing the fox to nearly fall. "... At least let me come with you," he offered. "I could help out if you needed it and I could drag you back here if you passed out."

"... I've really got no choice in this, do I?"

"No."

"... Very well then. Let's go."

--

"So, where are we going?"

Blaze and Esplouge were walking down the streets of the city, seeming to be headed for nowhere, at least in Blaze's mind. Unlike Esplouge, he wasn't too familiar with the city. Esplouge seemed annoyed, angry about having to drag Blaze along.

"We're going to visit someone," he answered somewhat irritably.

"Oh really?" Blaze asked, looking suspicious of Esplouge's motives. "Just a little friendly visit? Nothing more?"

Esplouge looked to the ground. "No. Not exactly." He looked thoughtful for a moment. "Well, maybe. It depends on how she cooperates. If she doesn't act like an idiot, I'll let her live."

"And if she's uncooperative...?"

Esplouge smirked, looking to Blaze. "We'll kill her. Unless you become defensive of her like you are to Tails. Then I'll just have to kill her myself."

"Well... How old is she?"

Esplouge thought for a moment. "Thirteen or fourteen, I think. She's a little older than Tails."

"We'll kill her. She's had enough time to live."

A dark smile stretched across Esplouge's face.

"That's what I like to hear."

He looked to the ground again, losing his smile and acquiring a new, almost vacant expression.

"Most living things... survive too long. That's how it feels to me. I become claustrophobic around them sometimes. There's too many of them to move around comfortably anymore."

He looked back to Blaze as if being released from a trance.

"All we're doing is ridding the world of the filth that doesn't have to be here. Remember that, and you should be fine."

"How old are you?" Blaze asked. "You talk like you've been alive for a long time, much longer than..."

"My age shouldn't be of concern to you," Esplouge interrupted.

They continued to walk along in silence.

"I wonder what Tails is doing..." Esplouge muttered after a short while.

"What?"

"Well, he's not in his cell. I doubt he'd willingly go back there. He's probably trying to escape, or maybe he's already gotten out. It's not like it'd be difficult or anything. I'm not exactly a master at setting traps." Esplouge laughed at this, confusing Blaze. "He's probably going to fuck up what I've got planned for Miss Rose. Wouldn't that be annoying?"

"... What _do_ you have planned for this girl?" Blaze asked.

"I think she'd know where I could find a chaos emerald. Her little boyfriend always seems to stumble upon them." Esplouge paused for a moment. "Are you interrogating me, by any chance?"

"No. Why would you think that?"

"No real reason. I guess you could say I don't exactly trust you. You lied about taking the emerald away, I'm just wondering if there's anything else you're lying about. Oh fuck..."

Esplouge leaned against the wall of a nearby building before slumping down to the ground. The colors of his surroundings seemed to be blending, warping.

"Fuck, when'd the world get so psychedelic?" Esplouge asked. "You kept that stupid emerald around me too long, you idiot. I can still feel it t... Fuck..."

"How about the purple emerald?" Blaze asked, holding out the amethyst gem carefully. "What'll this...?"

Esplouge snatched the emerald out of Blaze's hand immediately, already feeling it's healing effect on his body. He stared at the gem like a child does to his favorite toy.

"You really do come in handy, don't you?" Esplouge asked, concentrating more on the emerald than Blaze. "You actually got one of the emeralds. One of the six, at least."

"I recall the kid suggesting that the emeralds could help you heal," Blaze explained. "Can they?"

"Yes," Esplouge confirmed. He stood back up, almost awkwardly. "Not a lot, but they work better than lying in a bed for a few hours. I'm feeling a lot better now." He began to walk again, stumbling slightly over his steps. "Shall we continue?"

--

Amy was still clinging to Sonic, trying to comfort him and, ironically, only making him feel worse. Everyone else was talking, save for Shadow of course, but none of their words were really penetrating Sonic's ears. All he could focus on was how much pain Tails was probably in right now.

"He tends to linger around Eggman's older bases, so those would be a good start," Knuckles contributed.

"Do you have any idea how many of those he's made?" Rouge asked. "It would take forever to look thorough them all."

"He was close to the city last time, right?" Arcane asked. "That's what it said on the news."

"True," Rouge sighed, leaning back on the couch. "I guess it would be faster to check through all of those than to just sit here."

"We need to be organized about it, though," Metal Sonic explained.

_Anything to get revenge for my master..._

"And we should probably work in groups. I doubt going alone would be very safe."

"Yeah," Rouge agreed. "So, who should be in the groups? And are we going to be in groups of two or three?"

"Two should be fine," Knuckles explained. "If he's just now kidnapping Tails, he shouldn't have too many emeralds with him yet. He shouldn't be too much of a threat."

"I agree," Arcane said. "Two to a group sounds fine."

"Tails..." Sonic muttered. All eyes went to him.

"Sonic, it'll be okay. We'll find him," Amy consoled.

"Yeah, and then we'll beat the living hell out of Esplouge for doing this to us again," Knuckles added. "We'll make sure he's dead this tim..."

"He'll just come back!" Sonic argued. "He's done it before, who's to say he won't do it again? Tails is going to die, you all know it! So stop trying to sugar coat things!"

"Calm down..." Amy murmured, barely audible.

"I don't have _time_ to calm down!" Sonic argued. "Tails is probably being killed as we speak, and we're not even _doing _anything about it!"

"Sonic, you're acting like a total bastard," Rouge explained bluntly. "I understand that you're scared for Tails' safety, but if you don't stop acting like a total idiot, we really _won't_ get there in time."

Sonic leaned back on the couch, pouting. "Fine. So, who's team am I on?"

--

Esplouge and Blaze arrived at Amy's apartment complex. Esplouge ran in impatiently while Blaze followed. When they got there, Esplouge threw open the door only to discover that Amy wasn't there.

"She's... not here," Blaze pointed out as he entered. He looked to Esplouge, confused. "So... What do we do now?"

Esplouge smirked and picked up the fuzzy, pink telephone.

"Oh, don't worry. I figured they'd be onto me by now." Esplouge began to dial. "This is exactly what I wanted. This'll make it so much more interesting."

--

"Okay, so it's agreed?" Rouge asked. "Shadow and Arcane will search together. And I'll go with Amy and Sonic. That just leaves..."

"There's no way I'm searching with him!" Metal Sonic objected, pointing to Knuckles. "I'd rather...!"

Metal Sonic was cut off by the phone ringing. Everyone stared at the phone, wondering why anybody would be calling.

"Should... Should we answer it?" Knuckles asked.

Amy picked up the phone on the third ring. "Hello?"

"A- Amy?" came Tails' voice.

"Tails? Tails, where are you?"

"A- at your house. I got out of Esplouge's base the moment I saw an opening, and this was the closest place I could get to."

"Oh, I see."

"_Where is he?!_" Sonic asked.

"He's..."

"Amy, I'm scared," Tails' voice continued. "I think Esplouge is following me. Can you come here and take me home?"

"Sure, Sonic and I will..."

"N- no. D- don't bring Sonic."

"What? Why?"

"If Esplouge sees Sonic, he'll follow him back to me. I'm sure of it. If you go alone, it won't look as suspicious to him, because this is where you live."

"O- okay. I'll be there in a few minutes."

"Th- thank you, Amy..."

They both hung up.

"He wants me to go there alone," Amy explained.

"Where?" Sonic asked. "And why would he want you to go by yourself?"

"I think he's worried that Esplouge could still be following him," Amy explained, pulling on her coat. "It'd be easier if I went alone."

"But where...?"

Amy was already out the door before Sonic could finish speaking.

--

Esplouge hung up the phone with a smirk. "Those idiots actually fell for it," he snickered.

"You're really... You sounded just like him," Blaze said, amazed.

"Yeah, well his voice isn't exactly... It's not hard to mimic. Not for me anyway." Esplouge seemed uncomfortable for a moment. "I doubt she can keep Sonic away. He's probably going to screw things up."

"So... Should I kill him?"

"No. I like playing with him. All we need is some rope. Enough to tie up two."

"Do you really think there'd be any in here?" Blaze asked, looking to the fuzzy, pink and red heart shaped rug. All four of them.

"No. You should go get some before they get here."

"What? Why me?"

"Because you're faster than me."

--

Sonic and Amy were running toward Amy's apartment. Sonic refused to stay behind.

"Do you really think Esplouge could set up a plan that complex?" Amy asked, sounding very skeptical.

"It's just too good to be true," Sonic explained. "It wasn't nearly this easy last time."

"Well, we got lucky this time," Amy explained happily. She and Sonic dashed through the hallways and up the stairs to the floor that Amy lived on. When they got there, they were surprised to find the door was already open. It was too dark to see into the room.

"T- Tails?" Amy asked, taking a step inside.

Esplouge pulled her further in and threw her to the floor.

"No, but you're close," he joked. "And I see you've brought a friend! Apparently neither of you really cares for Tails' safety, am I right?"

"You little f...!"

Sonic cut himself off when Blaze dragged him into the room, pinning him to the floor.

"Be careful what you say, Sonic," Esplouge mocked. "Blaze is on my side, and he's got a nifty little trick up his sleeve."

"_Get off me!_" Amy screamed.

Esplouge held his glass to Amy's throat. "Now, is yelling at me to do something you _know_ I won't do really necessary?" He pressed the glass down harder. "I think not."

Sonic was screaming as Blaze tied him up.

"_I'll kill you, you little bastard!_" Sonic screamed.

"Shut up!" Esplouge ordered, glaring at Sonic. His focus quickly returned to Amy. "Now, if you cooperate, we'll let you both go. And if you fail to cooperate, then you're both as good as dead."

Esplouge dragged the glass across Amy's throat, driving it in further as he dragged it along. A small trickle of blood ran down Amy's throat.

"It's simple, really. All you have to do is answer one itty bitty question. That's not so hard now, is it?" A twisted smile stretched across his face.

"What have you done to Tails?" Amy asked angrily. "I know I heard his voice!"

Esplouge slid the glass between Amy's eyes, seriously hurting her this time. She whimpered, but refused to scream.

"You're not the one asking questions, Miss Rose. That would be me."

"**I'm gonna fucking kill you!**" Sonic screamed.

"Blaze..." Esplouge muttered.

Blaze nodded and in a moment, Sonic was surrounded by flame. Sonic started slightly, surprised by the seemingly random fire. In another moment, the fire was out.

"Blaze has pyrokenisis," Esplouge explained. "So I wouldn't recommend pissing either of us off. Not if you want to _live_ anyway..."

Sonic remained silent, glaring daggers at Esplouge. Esplouge smirked and went back to Amy.

"So, do you know where I could find any chaos emeralds?" he asked. "I know you have to know where one of them is. And if not you, I'm sure your boyfriend knows."

"I... I don't know..."

Esplouge slashed Amy's face, nearly driving the glass through her eyes. She screamed from pain and shock. Esplouge slashed her again and again, listening to her screams as they grew louder and louder. Blaze just stared, slightly disgusted.

"Tell. Me. Where. The. Emeralds. Are!" Esplouge ordered through slashes. "Tell me and I'll _stop_. You want me to _stop_, don't you?!"

"I... I don't know..." Amy sobbed. "S- Sonic..."

"S- stop hurting her," Sonic begged. He hated resorting to begging, but there was really nothing else he could do.

"Give me what I want first," Esplouge ordered. "Give me information of where I could find one of the chaos emeralds."

"T- Tails had one..."

Esplouge slashed Amy again, this time slashing her throat and ripping a part of her dress. Amy screamed again, causing Sonic to flinch.

"Do you think I'm stupid?" Esplouge asked angrily. "I think I would have noticed if..."

"I... I think it's still in his room at home," Sonic explained. "You know where he lives, right?"

Esplouge continued to stare at Amy.

"... Has he moved in the past eleven months?"

"No."

"Then yes." Esplouge got off of Amy and slid his glass back in his glove. "Thanks for your help." He looked to Blaze. "Tie her up. I don't want her to be able to run when we burn this place to the ground."

"_What?!_" Sonic and Amy asked together. Only Amy continued. "You can't be serious! We told you where you could find a chaos emerald!"

"Yes, and I'm very _happy _about that," Esplouge explained. "However, seeing as you both fill me with an uncontrollable _rage_, I think ridding myself of you would be more productive for me than just allowing you to return to your buddies."

Blaze was tying Amy up.

"Look at the bright side, Miss Rose," Esplouge began, smirking darkly. "At least you get a romanticized death with your _one true love_. That's all anyone could ever ask for."

He laughed, walking out of the room. Blaze followed slowly, not seeming sure of what to do.

"We'll give you two a minute or so to say anything you want to say to each other," Esplouge continued. "Have fun burning."

Esplouge was already out the door, but Blaze lingered behind for a moment.

"In about twenty seconds, start wriggling around a little," Blaze told Amy. "The rope should come right off." He began to walk out the door. "Also, I'd suggest using the back exit. Wait there for a few minutes before going anywhere."

--

Esplouge and Blaze were in the street below Amy's apartment complex.

"So, you're fine with burning them. You're sure?" Esplouge asked.

"Of course," Blaze confirmed. "This is going to be fun."

In moments, the building was up in flames. Esplouge smiled his usual dark smile.

"Well, the knowledge that they're burning is good enough for me," Esplouge explained. "I'm leaving."

"Why?" Blaze asked, still staring at the flames.

"... Fire freaks me out," Esplouge explained. "Too painful." He shuddered. "You just... Watch your little fire, I guess. Come back to the base when you feel like it, okay?"

Blaze nodded, honestly not paying much attention to Esplouge. He was too fascinated by the dancing flames.

--

Tails walked down the street timidly, worried beyond worried that Esplouge would find him before he could get to Sonic. He was still holding the red chaos emerald, clinging to it as if for dear life.

"Please don't let him find me..." Tails muttered to himself. "Please don't..."

He felt someone grab his arm, causing him to drop the emerald. He spun around quickly, knowing who he'd see standing behind him.

"I knew I couldn't trust you not to leave," Esplouge growled. "Taking advantage of me when you _know_ damn well I can't stop you... You're lucky I won't kill you for that!"

"Y- you're hurting me..." Tails murmured as Esplouge's grip on his arm increased.

"We're going back," Esplouge explained, ignoring Tails entirely. "And I'm going to make sure you don't leave this time."

He began to drag Tails, trying to distance himself from the red emerald as well as return to the base.

"E- Esplouge..."

"Shut up," Esplouge ordered. "I'm not in the mood to listen to your lying little voice."

"B- but..."

Esplouge held the purple emerald in Tails' face threateningly.

"Shut _up_," Esplouge growled. "Same rules as last time; I don't want to hear your voice until we get to the base."

They walked along in silence, neither of them in the mood to talk.


	7. Snap

Sonic and Amy were waiting by the back of the burning apartment complex, just as Blaze had ordered. They had barely gotten out of the building when the fire had started. Now it was just a matter of waiting for Esplouge to leave so they could return to Tails' house.

Amy hugged Sonic, burying her bleeding face in his chest. The pain was almost unbearable, but just being with Sonic made her feel like she could handle anything. Sonic, on the other hand, stared at the building in horror, absent-mindedly patting Amy's back in what was supposed to be a comforting manner.

"I... I don't get it," Sonic muttered, more to himself than Amy. "Why would he set the entire _building _on fire? Why... What the hell's wrong with him?"

"S- Sonic, it hurts..." Amy whined, her voice muffled slightly from being against Sonic's chest. "Can we go now?"

Sonic paused for a moment, his mind consumed with thought. "Yeah. I'm sure Esplouge has gone away by now."

Sonic began to lead Amy back to Tails' house, his arm around her in a comforting manner. Small pearls of tears darted down Amy's cheeks as they walked.

"We're gonna get him for this," Sonic said comfortingly. "He's going to pay for what he did to you. He's going to pay for everything he put us through, you'll see."

--

"I still can't believe you lied to me," Esplouge rambled. They had gotten back to the base by now, and Esplouge was leading Tails down a corridor. Esplouge had calmed down significantly, but still showed his anger a little bit. "_You_ of all people!"

"I... I'm really sorry," Tails apologized for what felt like the millionth time. He knew very well that none of this was his fault, but apologizing felt like it was the right thing to do. Apologizing seemed to calm Esplouge down, even though they both knew that the apologies were empty.

"You never lied to me before," Esplouge said as they entered a room. The room was cold and dark, kind of like a mideval dungeon. "You never once... Other than some things you've lied about to Eggman, I think that was your first real lie. You've never lied to anyone before, not like that anyway."

"I... I didn't really plan it," Tails explained, figuring he'd have to tell Esplouge the truth eventually anyway. "I really was telling the truth at the time. You have to believe me."

Esplouge looked to Tails calmly, making eye contact. "I can't believe you. I can't believe anything you say, that's the problem."

_Why is he looking at me like that?_

"Hm? You seem a little scared, Miles."

Tails jumped at the sound of his real name. "H- How do you know my name?" he asked for, again, what felt like the millionth time. "I don't remember telling you..."

"Of course not, because you never told me," Esplouge cut in. "I want you to figure it out on your own. I want you to figure out why I know the things I know. It'd be less fun if I just _told_ you, wouldn't it?"

"But... I... I don't really like guessing games," Tails explained timidly.

"Liar," Esplouge accused. "You love guessing games, because you feel satisfied with yourself when you get something right. I, on the other hand, hate being on your end of guessing games."

"Then why are you doing this to me?" Tails asked.

Esplouge smirked. "Because I love my end of this. I love watching you get frustrated. Besides, we can consider this payback for your little lie."

Tails sighed, feeling defeated. There really was no point in arguing with Esplouge. All it would do was get on his nerves. And by the looks of things, it was already getting on Esplouge's nerves.

"It's not that hard to understand, really," Esplouge went on, seeming preoccupied. "Think about it. I know your name. I know everything about you. Every blasted thing. And the same goes for Shadow." He grabbed Tails' shoulders suddenly, frightening the younger fox. "Why do you think that is?"

"I... I don't know," Tails muttered.

"Make a guess then," Esplouge urged. "The first thing that pops into your mind!"

"I don't know," Tails repeated.

He and Esplouge stared at each other for a moment before Esplouge finally gave up and backed off.

"Fine. You'll have plenty of time to think about it in here anyway," Esplouge explained.

"W- what?"

"And the walls are soundproofed," Esplouge continued, "so there'll be nothing to distract you from your thoughts."

"What are you talking about?" Tails asked, his voice slightly panicked.

"Leaving you in here, of course. What else?" Esplouge looked to Tails, smirking at his frightened expression. "I can't trust you not to leave, and I can't trust Blaze to leave you alone. This is the only way I can be absolutely sure you don't escape. I'm sure you understand."

"B- but it's scary in here..." Tails argued.

"No it's not. _Scary_would be blood on the walls and lightning out of nowhere. And maybe a few skulls scattered about for good measure. But there's nothing like that in here."

"Esplouge..."

"Don't worry. I'll still drop by every so often for a little 'chat'," Esplouge explained sheepishly. "And maybe to give you some of that mint candy you love so much. If I'm in a good mood, that is."

Esplouge laughed and exited the room, closing and locking the door behind himself.

--

Sonic and Amy returned to Tails' house fairly quickly. When they got there, they were immediately bombarded with questions.

"Where's Tails?" Knuckles asked.

"What happened to you guys?" Rouge asked.

Metal Sonic led Amy away from the others, understanding she wanted some time away from them. Sonic just stood there, mostly in shock.

"E- Esplouge..." Sonic began, his voice trembling from a mixture of horror and anger.

"That zombified demon is seriously..." Rouge began.

"No. He's... It's like he never died," Sonic explained. "Not like a zombie or a ghost... He's... He's _alive_."

"But what about Tails?" Arcane asked.

"He wasn't there," Sonic explained. "Esplouge didn't say where he was."

"Do you think he's..." Knuckles began, trailing off when he noticed Sonic's somber expression.

"Esplouge wouldn't do it," Shadow explained. "Esplouge would _never_ kill Tails. He told me so himself."

"And you actually _trust_ that little bastard?" Knuckles asked.

Shadow glared at Knuckles, but said nothing.

Sonic had sat down by now, and was staring at the ground in a daze. His mind raced with thoughts of what could be happening to Tails, if they weren't too late already. Shadow noticed this and walked up to him, crouching on the ground in front of him .

"Don't worry, Sonic," Shadow consoled. "We'll get that bastard. We'll rescue Tails and then we'll get Esplouge for all of this. He's going to _stay _dead this time."

--

Amy was in the bathroom, washing the blood off of her face, while Metal Sonic stood at the door. Neither of them had much to say, which provided a very awkward silence.

"So... Do you want to talk about it?" Metal Sonic asked. "You know I won't tell the others if you don't want me to."

"Sonic's probably telling them the whole thing anyway," Amy explained. "Ask _him_ to fill you in."

"... I know I'm in no position to argue with you, but doesn't it usually make people feel better when they talk about the things that bother them? Just so they can get the problem off their chest."

Amy looked at herself in the mirror and shuddered. "I can't believe he went for my face this time."

"What did he do to you last time?" Metal Sonic asked.

"He... Not very much, actually. I got away before he could do very much."

Another silence followed.

"You want me to leave you to yourself, don't you?" Metal Sonic asked.

"... If you don't mind."

Metal Sonic nodded and left to return to the others.

--

Metal Sonic returned to the others. All eyes were on him as he walked down the stairs.

"Is Amy alright?" Rouge asked.

"She will be," Metal Sonic explained. "She just needs some time alone. Also, I'd suggest withholding the fact that the rabbit is dead."

"What?" Knuckles asked.

"Esplouge already got to Cream," Shadow explained. "Why else would her chao be here without her?"

"Damn, he's not too picky about the age, is he?" Knuckles commented. "She was... Wasn't she six or so?"

"I believe so," Metal Sonic acknowledged.

"That's just sick," Rouge muttered.

"The same's going to happen to Tails..." Sonic murmured, barely audible enough to hear.

"No, it's not," Metal Sonic argued, being the only one who had honestly heard him. "Tails isn't going to die."

"Sonic, seriously, your increasing pessimism is giving _Shadow_ a run for his money," Rouge commented.

Sonic and Shadow glared at Rouge but said nothing.

"Tails is counting on us," Metal Sonic explained. "We need to stop arguing and start looking for Esplouge's base."

"But what about Amy?" Arcane asked. "We can't just leave her here."

Metal Sonic stared at the unfamiliar albatross for a moment before speaking. "Yes, that's true. Can you and the bat girl stay?"

"Why do I have to stay?" Rouge asked.

"I just thought Amy would want some comfort from another girl," Metal Sonic explained. "She's like that sometimes."

Rouge shrugged. "Okay, then," she agreed. "Arcane and I will stay to look after her. Now that just leaves the matter of what our little 'teams' are going to be..."

"How about Shadow with Knuckles, and me with Sonic?" Metal Sonic offered hopefully, trying to get out of having to team up with the echidna.

Everyone agreed (especially Knuckles, who didn't want to search with the robot either) and the four were off.

--

"It's kind of funny that we're searching for Tails together," Sonic commented after a little while. "I mean, Egghead was probably making plans with you to kill me just this morning, right?"

Metal Sonic remained silent, uncomfortable with the mentioning of his departed master.

"Oh, come on, lighten up," Sonic teased. "You were trying to cheer me up earlier, and now I'm..."

"You're being a jerk, Sonic," Metal Sonic cut in. "I was comforting you because I'm sure that Tails is still alive, whereas you're intentionally trying to make me feel bad."

"No I'm not," Sonic argued defensively. "I'm just trying to get you to cope with it. If you can't, that's your own problem."

"Yeah, and if Tails is killed and you can't cope, that'll be _your _own problem," Metal Sonic countered. "I can be just as immature as you, you know. I'm starting to think I should have gone with Shadow or that knucklehead echidna."

"I'm starting to think the same thing," Sonic muttered. "Look, can't we at least _try_ to get along?"

"Sure," Metal Sonic agreed. "Tails is what's important right now. We can bicker later."

Sonic smirked, finding humor in the robot's words. "Good. Now that we have that settled, where should we go first? You know better than anyone where Eggman's old bases are."

Metal Sonic paused thoughtfully. "I'd need to know a little bit about Esplouge first. What kind of places has he used in the past?"

"Cold, dark, and abandoned," Sonic explained, knowing he wasn't being very helpful. "As long as it was previously owned by E-- I mean, your master."

"... That's not going to help. We can already rule out my master's most recent base, since I was there long after he left... I think one of my master's older bases had a chaos emerald in it. Is Esplouge attracted to...?"

"Oh crap!"

"W- what?"

"We...! Esplouge...! I think I know...!" Sonic grabbed the robot by the arm and began to drag him. "Come on!"

--

Esplouge was wandering down the city streets, happy that it was now night. Things always seemed better at night, at least in his eyes. His destination was clear, his objective even clearer. He was going to Tails' house, unaware that anyone was there, so he could get the chaos emerald that Sonic had told him about.

His mind twisted and turned; thinking of the things he should do to Tails for lying to him. Each thought was more greusome than the next, until it got to the point where he knew he had to stop. These thoughts would cloud his mind over time and cause him to kill the one person he wanted alive. He wasn't willing to let that happen.

_I have to do something about it, though. I can't let him think it's alright to lie to me like that._

He reached the familiar house before any other thoughts could go through his mind, and was surprised to find the lights on. Tails would never leave the lights on if he were going out, so the only logical explanation was that someone was in there. Who it was, he wasn't entirely sure of. Sonic and Amy had, to his knowledge, burned up.

He crept up to the window and peered in, seeing Amy and Rouge sitting around and talking like old friends, and an unfamiliar albatross hanging out by the front door as if guarding it. Esplouge smirked to himself; this would be much too easy. He ignored the fact that Amy shouldn't have been there.

He snuck to the back of the house, looking for that familiar window that Tails looked out of each morning. It took a minute, but he found it without too much trouble. He stared up at it, feeling the emerald's power even from so far away. He could feel a dormant energy inside trying to break free. It took everything he had to stop himself from breaking out into a laughing fit. Soon enough, he'd be holding the emerald in his hand, and that dormant energy could once again break free...

--

It was awkward for Amy, talking to Rouge as if they were good friends. They had never really gotten along, not even the last time Esplouge came around, but here they were, talking like long separated friends. The most mundane subjects would come up in their drawn out conversations, but either way it felt nice. It was nice just having someone to talk to.

Arcane on the other hand, not being too interested in girly things, hung around the front door, snoozing in a chair. It was nice having some alone time.

"I wonder how Tails is doing..." Amy muttered suddenly, looking out the window. "It feels awkward staying in his house while he's probably being tortured, you know?"

"Don't worry so much," Rouge comforted. "Tails was just fine last time. Why are you so paranoid about his safety now?"

"Esplouge... I don't know. He seems different," Amy began, not really sure how to phrase what she was trying to say. "He never hurt me last time. He just creeped me out and tried to kidnap me a couple times. But this time..."

"Amy..."

Before Rouge could get any further, the door slammed open. Sonic was standing in the doorway, closely followed by a very confused Metal Sonic. Arcane fell out of his chair, surprised at being woken up, while the girls just stared, confused.

"Sonic, what...?"

"Has anything out of the ordinary happened at all since we've left?" Sonic asked, somewhat frantically.

"N- no..." Amy answered. "Rouge and I have been hanging out and Arcane has been napping. That's..."

Sonic opened his mouth to speak, but the ringing telephone cut both him and Amy off. They both looked to the phone for a moment before Sonic ran to it and picked it up.

"He- hello?" the blue hedgehog asked nervously.

"Hello, Sonic," came Esplouge's voice. Sonic immediately tensed up.

"Wh- where...?!"

"Where am I?" Esplouge finished, his voice filled with his twisted humor. "Ha ha, I'd think _you_ of all people would know! You're the one who told me to come here in the first place!"

"_What?!_"

"Thanks for tipping me off about that emerald," Esplouge taunted. "It really was here, right here on Tails' cute little floor. He must have dropped it at some point."

Sonic froze, unable to speak. Esplouge was using the phone in Tails' room.

"From the sound of it, you must know where I am now," Esplouge continued. He hung up immediately afterword.

Sonic dropped the phone.

"Sonic, what's...?"

"Esplouge is...!"

Before Sonic could finish, the sound of shattering glass rang through the house, louder than anything they had ever heard before. Everyone (except for Metal Sonic) ducked and covered his or her ears, surprised by the sudden loud noise. Immediatly following the shattering sound was another familiar noise; Esplouge's psychotic laughter. Both Sonic and Metal Sonic bolted up the stairs, taking two steps at a time. Sonic tore open the door to Tails' room and was met with the sight of Esplouge laughing manically, his back turned to the door. The windows were completely destroyed and the glass seemed to have been thrown around the room and even into the hallway.

"W- What the hell?" Sonic asked aloud, catching Esplouge's attention.

The fox turned to them, still laughing, his eyes wide with mania. His entire body was covered in cuts, but the deepest ones were two nearly symmetrical cuts under his eyes that looked like grotesque tears. Each hand was gripping a chaos emerald tightly; his gloves laid in tatters on the floor.

"Everything inside me's _conflicting_, Sonic!" Esplouge exclaimed, seeming to have lost all coherency and sense. The littered glass loudly shattered into more pieces before Esplouge continued. "See how fucking_ great_ it is?! Just four more emeralds and I can do that to your _head_! _I can make your fucking head __**explode**_!"

Sonic just stared, confused and frightened. Esplouge had never looked so manic as far as he could remember. Sure, Esplouge was insane, but outright _mania _seemed so out of place on him. Metal Sonic picked up one of the glass shards, not understanding why it had shattered without anything having done something to it first.

"Sonic, how did...?" the robot began, cut off by Esplouge knocking the glass out of his hand.

"Don't you _dare _touch the glass!" Esplouge screamed, his voice crackling from how loud he was forcing it to go. He was gasping for breath, suddenly seeming exhausted. He grabbed his ears, trying to force them down as if to block something out. "_Shut up!_"

Metal Sonic was beginning to feel creeped out.

"Neither of us spoke," the robot pointed out bluntly.

"_Shut the fuck up!_" Esplouge screamed again, taking a few steps away from the confused pair in front of him. "_No I'm not! __**Shut up**_!" He tried to cover his ears again, having some trouble due to the emeralds in his hands. His gasping was nearing hyperventilation. "_I'll kill you __**all! HA HA HA!!!**_"

"Sonic, I think there's something wrong with him," Metal Sonic pointed out, glancing at Esplouge with a large amount of concern.

"No, really?!" Sonic asked angrily. "What was your first clue?!"

"No, I mean there's something... I think it's the emeralds doing this to him."

Sonic stared at his robot double blankly. "He's been out of his mind since I've know him. Trust me, it's not..."

Esplouge hit Sonic over the head with one of the chaos emeralds, forcing him to the ground.

"_This is _your_ fault!_" Esplouge screamed. The muscles in his arms were having light spasms by now. He hit Sonic over the head harder, pulling back the bloody emerald in a laughing fit.

Metal Sonic grabbed Esplouge's arms before he could do anything else to his fleshy counterpart, forcing Esplouge to remain somewhat still. The fox tried to wriggle out of the robot's grasp, but seemed to be too tired out to summon much strength. Metal Sonic squoze Esplouge's arms until he finally dropped the chaos emeralds and collapsed. When he was sure Esplouge was out cold, his attention immediately turned to Sonic.

"Are you okay?"

The blue hedgehog sat up, rubbing the back of his bleeding head, hissing from the pain. "I'm gonna kill him..." Sonic groaned. "As soon as everything stops spinning..."

The fallen emeralds were glowing a violent red color, illuminating the entire room in their unnatural glow.

"_Stop_..." Esplouge mumbled in his sleep. He sounded angrier than usual, and like he'd wake up at any moment.

"What should we do?" Metal Sonic asked. "What... What in the world?"

"What is it?" Sonic asked.

"I... I can't tell what he's doing. What is Esplouge doing, Sonic?"

"Just... lying there."

"He is? Then what's...?"

Metal Sonic made a sudden screeching sound before collapsing into his own form of unconsciousness. Sonic stared at the robot, wondering why he'd just collapsed like that.

Esplouge was still mumbling in his sleep, although it was too quiet and jumbled to make any sence to the wounded hedgehog. Sonic stood up carefully, not wanting to accidentally hurt himself further, and walked over to the emeralds warily. As he got closer, he noticed a large, dark circle forming on the carpet.

One of the glass shards had sliced open Esplouge's throat.


	8. Chapter 8

Sonic stared at Esplouge and at the growing dark pool of blood spreading on the carpet underneath him. Air was flowing in and out of his new hole, making a horrible rasping sound. Esplouge was trying to talk, but all of his words were distorted, partially from the hole, partially from being too weak after that outburst of insanity. He considered just letting Esplouge lie there to die, wanting revenge for everything he had done to Tails, but he knew that wasn't the answer.

Allowing Esplouge to die wouldn't help them find Tails.

He was amazed how active Esplouge was, considering his situation. The fox was still trying to speak and move. His arms kept twitching in a desperate attempt to claw at the air. His eyes kept trying to open, it seemed, but he was too weak to open them. He was just like a roach; he refused to die. He had had the life crushed out of him eleven months ago, and here he was bleeding all over the floor, but Sonic was sure the little monster wasn't going to die. He was far too persistent for that.

Sonic finally rolled Esplouge onto his back, wanting to inspect the new hole more carefully. It was a lot larger than he was expecting; and blood still flowed steadily out of it, running down Esplouge's neck and into the puddle. The rasping sound from the air going in and out of the hole was even more horrible when it wasn't muffled by the carpet. His speech was more coherent now as well, and Sonic could now make out a few words.

"S- Sonic..."

The hedgehog stared at the fox in shock, unable to believe what he just heard. It wasn't so much that he had talked, or that he had said Sonic's name; it was the fact that his voice wasn't his own, but _Tails'_. It was as if _Tails _was the one lying in front of him, bleeding profusely from his throat. It was as if _Tails_ had tried to bludgeon him with the bloody chaos emerald that now lay next to the fallen robot.

"T- Tails..." Sonic asked, knowing that his train of thought was crazy. There was no way this was his friend. The person in front of him was a horrible, sadistic little monster. Tails was elsewhere, either dead or frightened out of his mind.

"S- Sonic..."

_No, you're not Tails! Stop using that voice!_

"S- Stop it... You're not..."

"It hurtsss...."

"_Stop it!_"

He looked about ready to kill Esplouge right then and there, at least until Amy and the others entered the room. The three of them looked around, completely shocked. At first, they only noticed the glass, but when they noticed Esplouge lying in a pool of his own blood, they were completely terrified.

"What... What happened?" Amy asked.

"He..." Sonic had no idea what to say. He paused, thought for a moment, and continued. "Esplouge... We... Metal Sonic and I come in here and there was glass all over the..."

"Sonic..." Esplouge said again, still using Tails' voice. "Help me..."

Everyone stared at the fox in shock. Sonic looked about ready to kill him.

"I think we can safely assume Tails was never at your house, Amy," Sonic explained.

Amy nodded. "So where _is_ Tails?"

Sonic looked to Esplouge, watching the fox jerk slightly from pain. He had stopped talking by now, falling into unconsciousness. He looked so weak and small, like Tails had looked for a few months after the first incident was over.

He looked frightened.

Sonic wanted nothing more than to help the fox in front of him, wanting to help _Tails_...

_This isn't Tails. Stop thinking that._

"I wish I knew."

--

_What does it mean when your dreams feel more real than reality? Am I going insane?_

Esplouge found himself trapped in the first dream he had had in a long time. The dream was somewhat lucid; he knew it was a dream, but still couldn't control himself. He had had many dreams like this before, and they always seemed to turn out the same way.

_I can't get out. I know how to, but..._

Everything in the dream world kept fading away, leaving him in a desolate blackness that almost immediatly reformed into new surroundings. It was awkward, the feeling he expected one to get if they were going mad. The world would be there one moment, it would be gone in another. Forming and reforming into different places that were familiar to him, every place he could remember ever going to in his life, in a strange backwards order.

He was in Tails' room, but it looked different than it should have.

He was outside of Tails' house, but the trees surrounding it were grotesque, almost looking like tree-shaped organs.

He was then in his base, which was made entirely out of mirrors.

It all kept going until he finally reached a very familiar place; one of Eggman's old bases.

_Not this dream again..._

Everything was happening out-of-order, as far as he remembered. The glass was already on the floor, even though nothing had happened yet. Eggman and Metal Sonic were gone already, even though they should have still been there. He was already standing in the middle of the room, which shouldn't have been happening yet either.

He just stood there, staring at the glass. It glinted dangerously, beckoning him to come to it. He walked toward it, regardless of his minds pleas to stay away. It was as if something was controlling him, forcing him to go to the glass and pick it up.

_No, don't , not again, I..._

He picked up the glass, just a shard, barely as large as his palm. He ran the glass lightly down his hand, drawing a small trickle of blood. Maybe this dream would be different from the other times he had it, maybe...

He quickly discovered that theory to be wrong, as the walls began to collapse with no warning, burying him under the rubble in mere moments.

--

Esplouge woke up, unwillingly emitting a short, terrified gasp. He shot up, feeling cold sweat drip down his body, soaking the bed underneath him. He couldn't remember falling asleep, nor could he remember anything that happened after arriving at Tails' house.

He looked around the room, trying to remember what had happened. There was nothing to remind him; no blood, no broken objects, even the chaos emeralds were missing.

But the emeralds were still in the house. His and the one Sonic had told him about. He could feel them, feel their power lingering in the air. They were in a nearby room, or probably downstairs.

He awkwardly got out of bed, noticing a plethora of cuts covering his body. Where had those come from? He didn't remember getting any of those, save for the ones on his arms. And even some of those seemed unfamiliar.

"I've got to get out of here," he muttered to himself, looking to the door. He knew that there was probably someone guarding the door, most likely Shadow or Knuckles, but he didn't care. There were other ways out of the room, he didn't have to use the door.

_Tails is going to go mad in there, Esplouge..._

"W- what? Who said that?"

He looked around slowly, trying to find whoever had spoken to him. Was it all in his head? Had he been imagining things? It wouldn't be the first time he had heard disembodied voices.

"Everything's falling apart," he muttered, covering his ears like a timid child. He looked about ready to cry. "Everything. Why can't this just work?"

A creaking sound shook him from his thoughts. He looked up and saw Shadow standing in the doorway closing the door silently behind himself. They both immediately glared at each other, looking murderous. Esplouge felt almost sick with rage, and he was sure that Shadow felt the same way.

"You're finally awake," Shadow asked, more as a statement than a question.

Esplouge backed into a bookcase. He wasn't in the mood for fighting, but the thought of finally ridding himself of Shadow left him confused as to what he should do. His hands found a couple of books and he threw them at Shadow, trying to keep him away.

"Shut up!" Esplouge yelled. "Stay away from me!"

Shadow just stared at Esplouge, wondering why he was throwing books instead of directly attacking like he usually did. He approached Esplouge cautiously, getting hit by a few more books but not really caring. Esplouge was obviously holding back for some reason.

"What the hell are you doing?" Shadow asked. "You're acting..."

"_I said stay the fuck away!_" Esplouge screamed, backing into the bookcase, causing it to topple over on top of him. He had curled up, barely fitting between shelves, and was now waiting, book under hand, for Shadow to lift the bookcase back up. He forced his breathing to even out, trying to be as quiet as possible.

_Think I'm dead, lift the case, and I'll bash your fucking skill in..._

"Esplouge?"

When Shadow lifted the bookcase up, Esplouge was immediately on top of him, striking him with the book over and over. Esplouge had seemed weak a moment ago, but all of his strength was coming out now in a flood of rage. He refused to hold back.

"_I hate you!_" Esplouge screamed over and over between hits. "_I hate you! I hate you!_ _**I fucking hate you! BURN IN HELL!**_"

The book was now soaked with Shadow's blood. A pool was forming under the hedgehog, and he could feel the world fading in and out as he lost more and more blood. He tried to shove Esplouge away, but found himself too weak after being bludgeoned so violently.

"Well, will you look at that," Esplouge started, his voice filled with malice. "The so-called "Ultimate Life" beaten by a little boy. That's pathetic, even for you."

He lifted Shadow's head by the quills and dropped him, almost seeming bored. He was panting from how hard he had beaten the hedgehog, but he didn't mind it. He felt ecstatic from the thought, the _knowledge_, that Shadow was going to be dead in mere moments.

"Well, I hate for it to end here, Shadow, I really do, but I'm afraid you must die now." He lifted the bloody book over Shadow's head, preparing for the final strike.

_Nothing can save you now..._

"I guess I'll be seeing you in hell the next time I..."

Esplouge felt himself being thrown off of Shadow. Someone pinned him to the floor and when he opened his eyes, he was shocked to see Sonic on top of him, looking murderous.

"W- What the...! You...! You're supposed to be dead!"

"I can say the same about you," Sonic growled. His hands impulsively wrapped around the fox's throat. "Now tell me where Tails is!"

Esplouge punched Sonic's nose. Sonic's hands came away from Esplouge's throat in favor of rubbing his now bleeding nose. Esplouge backed toward the window, suddenly noticing how dizzy he was.

"_I won't let you take him away from me!_" Esplouge screamed, trying to drown out the dizziness with noise. It failed, only making him feel worse. "He's _mine!_"

Sonic pinned the fox to the wall, holding his throat tightly. It stung; the hole wasn't fully healed after all. It was becomming all Esplouge could do to remain standing as the dizzy feeling got worse.

"It's against my policy to kill, but I'm sure I could make an exception for you," Sonic fumed, squeezing Esplouge's throat harder. "You're the only person I've met who actually _deserves_ to die. Do you have _any_ idea...?!"

"Fine, kill me, you fucking idiot," Esplouge challenged, his voice awkward. Sonic was squeezing too hard. "I'll go to _Hell_, wake up in the next few hours or so, be in some place I don't remember going to, and then I'll skip merrily right on back to Tails because you're too much of a fucking _idiot_ to get his location out of me."

Esplouge wrapped his own hands around Sonic's as if instructing him to squeeze harder.

"So really, choke me harder. Throttle the life out of me, you're only giving me what I want anyway."

Sonic's grip had loosened significantly. "The dead can't come back to life."

"Oh, so it's impossible, is that what you're saying?" Esplouge asked, seeming somewhat surprised. "Just because you weren't there to watch me come back to life? So what, anything you don't see isn't really true? In that case, I must be mistaken. How could I have tasted that cute little rabbit's blood if _you_weren't there to see it? Tails must not be at my happy little base, 'cause I don't recall you being there when I took him. And Eggman's still _alive_, but not scheming, oh no, because you are like a God. _You see all that goes on_, is that what you're getting at? If you haven't seen it, it's not real."

Esplouge punched Sonic between the eyes again and pinned him against the wall, dragging one of his claws up the hedgehog's back. Sonic refused to scream or even yell, but Esplouge could feel Sonic's body twisting from pain underneath his hands.

"Or are you merely trying to say that _unfamiliar things_are not real?" Esplouge continued. "Eggman could scheme, if he were still alive of course, but only if it was something similar to something he's done before. Is that why he's such and incompetant scientist? He can't do _one thing_ right, he can't create _anything_ that doesn't have something _wrong _with it, and he could never take over this stupid world with total morons like _you_ running all over the place, because a fucking _infant_ could beat him in a battle of wits."

"That's not...!"

"It's not what you said, but it was what you were getting at. Let me ask you _this_, then, Sonic; what was Eggman working on immediately before I kidnapped Tails for the first time? Do you even know, or did he decide to keep it a secret?"

"What are you...?"

Esplouge punched the back of Sonic's head, slamming the hedgehog's face into the wall.

"You're all so _stupid_, do you know that? I can't believe _none_ of you have even considered it. I keep asking those questions to Tails and to Shadow, but does anyone ever figure it all out? No! Because you're all idiots!"

"_If Tails is an idiot, why do you keep him around?!_" Sonic asked, nearly screaming. "_Why don't you just leave him alone?!_"

Esplouge paused, thinking it over. "Why should I tell _you_? Don't you think it'd make more sense to tell the person I keep kidnapping? He deserves to know more than you do. After all, the question only pertains to him."

Tears leaked down Sonic's face, not from fear or pain, but from frustration. It took him a while to notice he was crying, but he brushed it aside. Tails was the only important thing here, so anything else was a mere distraction.

"I need to talk to Tails now," Esplouge nearly whispered, acting as if it was a secret. Something about the way his voice had sounded sent chills down Sonic's spine. Something about it was familiar, but Sonic had never heard his voice sound anything like this before.

"I... I won't let you," the hedgehog argued.

Esplouge smiled a twisted, humored smile and leaned in closer to Sonic's ear, speaking even quieter. "You have no choice."

--

Esplouge staggered down the street, covered with blood. Most of it wasn't his.

He was angry at himself for not killing Sonic or even Shadow, but Tails was more important to him at the moment. All he wanted was to be back at his base, holding Tails against a wall and tormenting the hell out of him. It never got old, at least in his eyes. Tails was so fun to mess with.

The streets were uncomfortable to walk on. People kept passing by and staring at him. Or, more specifically, the blood that was still wet on his fur. He wasn't in a fighting mood, and though he was sure a lot of the people recognized him from the news eleven or so months ago, he wasn't in the mood to threaten them. All he wanted was to get back to his "home".

And then he saw the one thing he _really _wasn't in the mood for. Blaze was walking a little ways ahead of him, completely unaware that Esplouge was immediately behind.

_You're going to die for letting them live, you...!_

He ran up behind Blaze, trying to be as quiet as possible. Blaze turned, noticing the sound of Esplouge's awkward footsteps. The fox's hand was immediately on Blaze's shoulder.

"You. Let. Them. _Live_," Esplouge growled.

"What?"

"You betrayed me, you stupid bastard!" Esplouge's hand was nearing Blaze's throat, but the hedgehog brushed it away without much care or effort. "It was a simple task; _burn the blasted complex down __**with them in it!**_ How fucking hard is that for you to understand?!"

Blaze paused for a moment. "... How much of that blood is yours?"

Esplouge tried to slap Blaze but ended up nearly collapsing. Blaze caught him and helped him stand back up.

"Okay, okay... Well, they were in there when I set the building on fire. We can be fairly sure of..."

"_Fairly_ sure?! You let them go on purpose, didn't you?!"

Blaze looked to the ground unsurley, trying to think of an answer Esplouge would like. Or at least something that wouldn't cause him to scream again.

"No. I swear..."

Esplouge grabbed Blaze's chin, forcing him to make eye contact.

"Look me in the eye and say that," he challenged. He squoze Blaze's jaw painfully. "Look at me and say with a straight face that you didn't let them go!"

Blaze looked into Esplouge's angry red eyes. It frightened him how angry Esplouge could get, especially now that for a split second, he could have sworn that those eyes were glowing like the chaos emerald. But that was silly, eyes couldn't do things like that.

"Well?" Esplouge asked impatiently.

Blaze looked to the ground, honesty getting the better of him.

"I... I can't."

"You can't _what?_" Esplouge asked.

"I can't say it with a straight face," Blaze admitted, feeling like a little kid. Only small children were supposed to go through this if they lied. "I... didn't exactly let them go, but I could have tied them up a bit better."

"A _bit?_ And how much is a bit?"

"Why are you still questioning me?" Blaze asked, beginning to feel a little agitated. "I gave you an honest answer..."

"Which is an improvement over how things usually are," Esplouge cut in. "How much of what you say can I really trust?"

"I could ask the same of you."

"What do you mean?" His hands were finally off of Blaze's face, instead resting by his sides. He was too tired to do anything that was unnecessary.

"The red em..."

"We're going there _again_?!" Esplouge asked angrily. "Look, if you want the answer, I'm not even sure what's up with that stupid thing. Eggman's the only one who knows for sure, but he's dead now, so it'd be useless to ask him. That stupid disk he had with all the...!" Esplouge trailed off. He looked away from Blaze nervously. "Nevermind."

"Wha..."

"Drop it."

"Serious..."

"_Drop it._"

"Es..."

"Leave me alone!" Esplouge yelled. "I don't want to talk about that!"

"Cool it. Okay, I'll stop asking about it. Will that make you happy?"

Esplouge glared but nodded. He looked so much like a child that didn't get his way or, even worse, had to _compromise_. He was now a few feet away from Blaze, refusing to stand any closer.

"See? That wasn't so hard, was it?"

"I want to go back now."

"Back?"

"I like being around Tails. He doesn't do this to me."

"All I did was ask a question. I don't care to talk about it if you don't want to."

Esplouge started walking away, so Blaze followed.

"Don't you have _any _idea how to talk to people? You must have parents or..."

The back of Esplouge's fist connected with Blaze's nose, catching the hedgehog off guard. Esplouge had stopped walking and now just stood rooted to where he had stopped, glaring at the ground as if trying to kill it with his mind.

"I don't _want_ parents. I don't need _anyone_ telling me what to do. In case you haven't noticed, I can look after myself just fine."

He looked to his arms, which were still covered in cuts. But he had caused those himself, so it wasn't like he wasn't able to look after himself.

"I've never had parents. I don't need any now. Got it?"

Blaze's hands were at his nose, trying to slow the bleeding. He wanted so badly to hit the little brat back, but refrained from doing so. He wasn't in the mood to fight, and hitting back wouldn't solve anything anyway. Esplouge began to walk away again, so Blaze, again, followed.

"Listen..."

"Go away."

"What?"

"I don't want an ally anymore. You're too much trouble for me. I can't even trust you. What use are you to me?"

Esplouge felt something lightly hit his face and jumped, startled. He looked to Blaze and saw him holding a sapphire colored jewel. Another chaos emerald. His jaw would have dropped to his feet, had it been scientifically possible.

"I seem to have a knack for finding these things, don't I?" Blaze asked, holding the emerald out of Esplouge's reach as the fox tried to grab it. "If we weren't allies, I could just give these to Sonic and the oth..."

"Don't!" Esplouge nearly screamed. "Just... You... You... _Fuck_ you."

"So, what's it gonna be?" Blaze asked, humored. "Do you want me to "go the fuck away", or do want to try, just _try_ to learn how to work things out between us?"

"I need that emerald, Blaze."

"Are you going to at least _pretend_ to tolerate me?"

"Give me the emerald."

"Give me a real answer. Yes if you want me to stay, no if you want me to leave."

"I hate you."

"That's not..."

"Fine. Yes, I'd absolutely _love_ for you to stay on my side! Now give me the damn emerald before I tear your arms off."

Blaze tossed the emerald to Esplouge, feeling that that answer was the best one he was going to get. Esplouge clung to the jewel possessively, almost as if shielding it from unworthy eyes. They began to walk again and for a few moments, everything was silent between them.

"I lost the other two."

"Two?"

"I had the one you gave me, and there was another one at Tails' house. I never even got to see the stupid thing, but I could feel it there."

"You went to his house?"

"... Sonic said there was an emerald there, remember? But he didn't mention that they were using it as their "base", and... I don't know. I almost got to the emerald, I could _feel_ the thing, and the next thing I know, I'm waking up with cuts all over my body and my emerald gone. It's not fun waking up to the person you hate the most standing right outside the door, just waiting for you to wake up. Especially when you can _feel_ those emeralds are somewhere in the house, but you can't get to them because you're too busy trying to make sure you don't get killed. And..."

"Esplouge?"

"What?"

"You're rambling."

"You just want to ask me more questions, don't you?"

"Not if it'll piss you off."

Esplouge looked to the emerald in his hand, smiling.

"I'm in a better mood." He looked to Blaze suddenly. "I'm hungry. Can you go get me some food?"

"Why do I...?"

Esplouge laughed quietly, almost giggling. It was unnerving coming from him, but Blaze hid his uneasiness by looking away.

"I'm covered in blood. I really don't think I can go into a store like this without drawing unwanted attention to myself." His stomach growled loudly. "I haven't eaten since yesterday in the morning. And I really doubt a young girl's blood is very... nutritious."

"Well, I don't think they sell _blood _at _food _places," Blaze explained, trying to hide his disgust as his stomach gave a horrible turn. "Is there anything else you'd like to eat?"

"I like candy," Esplouge explained, looking to the sky absent-mindedly. "Especially minty candy. ... Just get some fruit or something. Tails likes apples, get some of those. He needs to eat as... _Fuck_!"

"W- what?"

"I...! I forgot...! _Fuck_!" Esplouge started to run off. "Just... Get the food and come back, 'kay?"

Esplouge was gone too fast for Blaze to answer without catching unwanted attention. He merely nodded and walked into a nearby store.

--

Esplouge ran into his base some time later, cursing himself for not being able to run very fast. Teleporting would have been useful, but he couldn't do that either.

_Fucking Shadow and his 'chaos control'..._

He ran up to the door that led to the room Tails was in and tore it open, almost forgetting to use the key.

It took him a moment to adjust to the darkness of the room, but when he did, he felt even more furious at Sonic and Shadow. He had intended on being back yesterday, midnight at the latest, and here he was, finally returning about a quarter to noon.

Tails was curled up in a corner, looking to Esplouge with wide, frightened eyes. Dry tears stained his cheeks and he couldn't stop shaking from anxiety.

Esplouge was at Tails' side almost immediately, holding him awkwardly. Tails returned the hug for the first time either of them could remember, clinging to Esplouge like a frightened child to a parent. Tails had begun to cry again, but Esplouge hid his annoyance.

"Are you okay?" Tails asked quietly, his voice even quieter than usual.

This question confused Esplouge. Why would Tails care if he were okay? Sure, the younger fox did seem to care about him from time to time, but considering the situation, he would have expected the first question to be "Did you hurt any of my friends?" or some form of "Can I leave?".

"I'm... fine, I guess," Esplouge answered awkwardly. "Why do you ask?"

"C- cuts..." Tails was beginning to find it hard to speak.

Esplouge nodded as if to say, "Oh those? They're nothing". He began to run his fingers gently over Tails' face, drying the tears.

"You okay?" Esplouge asked.

Tails began to cry harder."I'll be good."

Esplouge immediately let go of Tails, backing away slightly.

"What? That... What are you talking about? That wasn't what I asked." He sounded almost panicked.

"Please let me leave," Tails sniveled. "P- please! I'm scared, and...!"

Esplouge covered Tails' mouth to stop him from speaking. Tails shrieked, not understanding what was going on.

"Calm down, calm down..." Esplouge eased, feeling more than a little awkward. "I'm not letting you go back to your little buddies, but I'm letting you stay somewhere else. Don't get me wrong, it's still in here, but..."

"Did Shadow hurt you?" Tails asked, slightly muffled from Esplouge's hand still being in his face.

Esplouge stared at Tails for a moment, confused. Under normal circumstances, Tails would never cut him off if he were still speaking. Or thinking of speaking, for that matter. And Tails usually cared about if he was okay or not, but being isolated in that room seemed to make him care more. He was expecting the opposite effect, for Tails to finally stop caring entirely.

_I should have known it would work out like this. How didn't I know?_

After a few moments silence, Esplouge answered, "Yes, he did hurt me."


	9. Chapter 9

Esplouge grabbed Tails' wrist tightly and led him out of the room. Tails was more than a little frightened, but he knew objecting wouldn't be of much help. Pissing Esplouge off always seemed to make things worse.

"Tails, I'm getting impaitient," Esplouge said suddenly.

"What?"

"With the questions I keep asking you. You haven't figured it out yet, but I want you to know before anybody else. I don't want to just _tell_ you the answers, especially since I'm not too sure about some of them myself, but what if I... sort of... lead you to the answer? I can give you extremely specific clues and then you could piece it together."

"Okay then," Tails agreed.

They reached a door and Esplouge opened it, revealing a somewhat small room on the other side. Tails stared around while Esplouge closed the door behind them. The room was actually kind of nice; there was a comfortable looking bed, a desk with a chair, and a refrigerator. There wasn't any blood on the walls, which, to Tails, was a good sign.

"I thought I'd challenge myself by keeping one room to your standards," Esplouge explained. Tails jumped at his voice, having forgotten Esplouge was there. "I apologize for the lack of mechanics, but I'm not sure what you could tamper with that wouldn't hurt me at some point. Or help you to escape."

Esplouge sat in the chair beside the bed, facing the wall.

"You can sit on the bed if you want to," Esplouge mumbled awkwardly. "It's really comfortable."

Tails did as he was told and quickly found that Esplouge was right; the bed really _was_comfortable. He looked to Esplouge, wondering why he was looking away.

"Okay, where to start..."

--

Shadow was the first to wake up. His crimson eyes opened slowly, trying to get used to the pain he was feeling. His head throbbed from being nearly beaten in by the book Esplouge had grabbed. He noticed Sonic almost immediately, wondering when the blue hedgehog had come into the room.

"Sonic...?"

The blue hero was just lying there, unconscious. He almost looked dead, save for the weakened rise and fall of his bruised chest. Shadow partly limped and partly crawled to the door, wondering if anything had happened to the others.

_If Esplouge did _anything_ to them, I'll..._

He pulled himself up, gripping the doorknob as if for dear life, and twisted the knob, opening the door weakly before collapsing into the hallway.

_Why did I have to tell them to wait safely downstairs?_

He laid there for a moment, too hurt and angry to move. How in the world could some nine-year-old brat be that strong? How in the world could the ultimate life be beaten so badly by a little kid?

_There's something not right about him. But what is it? What made him so strong?_

"A- Amy..." he called weakly, sure that no one would hear him. "Rouge... Somebody..."

He lifted himself back up, nearly falling back down. The world was spinning under his feet, but he had to see if the others were okay. He wouldn't be able to stand it if the others were hurt as well.

He walked carefully, concentrating on his footsteps, trying to get down the stairs. Or to the stairs for that matter.

_I feel so pathetic..._

He got down the first few steps without a problem, but when he reached the fifth or sixth step, he went tumbling down the staircase and into Knuckles' open arms.

"Wh- wha...?"

"I was just going up there to see what was going on," Knuckles explained, helping Shadow stand. "Esplouge is still up there, right?"

"No," Shadow answered.

"What? Then what happened?"

"I... I don't know. He didn't come down here?"

Knuckles motioned for Shadow to look at the rest of the room.

"Does it _look _like he came down here?" the echidna asked.

_No, it looks like everything is still in-tact, save for me and Sonic._

"Then where is he?" Shadow asked. He tried to force himself to stand on his own, without Knuckles' aide, and ended up nearly collapsing again.

"Shadow, I really don't think you should be standing on your own," Knuckles explained, leading a very reluctant hedgehog to the couch to sit down and rest.

"So you're sure Esplouge didn't come down here?" Shadow asked. "You're absolutely sure that everyone else is okay?"

_My head feels like it's going to explode, yet..._

"Yeah," Knuckles answered simply. "Sonic ran up there not too long ago. Is he hurt, or...?"

_...I think I like it._

"He's still alive, but barely. Honestly, I think he needs more help that I do right now."

"You sure you're fine?" Knuckles asked skeptically.

"Yes, I'll be okay. I'm awake at least."

_Is this the feeling Esplouge gets...?_

Knuckles left to go help Sonic. Shadow nearly fell off the couch as he tried to lay down. The world was still spinning underneath him, making him feel to the point of vomiting.

_I really think this is the feeling Esplouge gets..._

He let his eyes close and drifted off in thought

_...when he's near the chaos emeralds._

and then into sleep.

--

Sonic woke up an hour or so later in Tails' bed. He was confused for a moment, not remembering that Esplouge had even been there, and when it all rushed back to him, he began to cry. Not epic sobbing, just a sniffle and a few tears here and there. He tried to force it back, and succeeded for the most part.

"T- Tails..."

Shadow snuck into the room, or maybe he had been there the entire time. Sonic couldn't remember hearing the door open. Shadow was standing at the foot of the bed. He was grinning, which seemed odd to the wounded blue hero.

"Sh- Shadow?"

"Everything inside me's conflicting," Shadow said. Sonic froze. He had heard Esplouge say that not too long ago. How -and why- was Shadow able to quote something he hadn't even heard? "_Conflicting_. That's what he said, right? Everything's _conflicting._"

"Wh- What are you...?"

"He wasn't rambling. He wasn't talking crazy; those words had a meaning. A valid, sensible meaning. Now, would you like to take a shot at guessing what those words meant?"

Sonic had no idea what was going on, but he decided to play along. With any luck, this was just some strange pain induced dream and he'd wake up soon.

"Shadow, you're talking like _you're_the insane one. Nothing that Esplouge says has any valid point, other than to prove he's completely out of his mind. You know that as well as I do."

Shadow seemed to vanish and reappear beside the bed. Sonic jumped at the sudden action.

"Those words had a meaning," Shadow repeated. "Think about it. _Conflicting_. What kinds of things _conflict_? _Love_ and _hate_. _Life_ and _death_..."

"What are you talking about?" Sonic asked again.

"Life and death..." Shadow echoed. "Life and death... _Life and death_. He's going through a conflict involving his own _life_ and _death_. He's dying, rotting, from the inside out. He's going insane; he doesn't know what to do about it. He knows what the problem is, but he doesn't know what to _do_ about it."

"But... Why would he be dying?"

Shadow's sudden smirk made Sonic uncomfortable.

"Oh, that? Well, there was a certain thing that gave him life..."

--

_...and now it wants to take it back..._

Sonic awoke from the dream, gasping and nearly falling over the edge of the bed. It was strange; he really _was_ in Tails' room. When had he gotten here? Had someone carried him here? Why would they choose this room? The window was still shattered, its many shards still all over the floor. What in the world would cause someone of sound mind to bring him in here?

_Unless it was Esplouge..._

But that couldn't be it. Esplouge wouldn't carry him to a bed; he wouldn't carry anyone to a bed. He would leave them lying there on the ground in a helpless heap at his feet, staring down maliciously as they drew their last breaths before finally ending it. Someone else had to have brought him here, but who?

_What was it? What gave him life?_

That was a strange question. Shadow hadn't really said that; it was all just some stupid dream. It had no sence to it, just like any other ordinary dream. The mind's garbage dump. Nothing could be "more than just a dream". That wasn't realistic.

_What if he really did mean something? What's conflicting inside of him?_

_Entertaining the thought of whether or not to kill Tails, what else?_

_No, that's not it. He said life and death. Esplouge is dying. Rotting..._

_No, that was just a dream. Dreams aren't real._

_But sometimes they are. Sometimes they mean something more than the usual garbage._

_No. Shut up!_

Sonic would have felt like he was going insane having this conversation with himself had it been out loud. He knew it was just a dream, but at the same time...

Amy crept into the room, trying to be quiet in case Sonic was still asleep. She smiled when she saw he was awake and she ran to his side.

"Are you doing better?" she asked quietly, trying to speak in a soothing voice.

"A little... I guess," Sonic answered weakly. "Where'd he go?"

"Oh, Esplouge? He broke the window and jumped," the pink hedgehog answered, sitting down next to Sonic. "He got away."

"Why didn't he just kill me?" Sonic asked. "It's not like him to let someone live. Especially me."

He was beginning to notice a number of spots on his stomach and chest, about the size of a fist, which were burning from pain. The back of his head felt like it would split open.

"Sonic, don't say things like that!" Amy scolded. She wrapped her arms around him, immediately backing off when Sonic hissed from pain. "You know...!"

"I know, I know... I was just saying that I'm surprised Esplouge left without... You know."

"Yeah," Amy sighed, relaxing a little. "It is weird. Weirder than he normally is."

_He's rotting..._

"Maybe he thought you were dead," Amy continued, unaware of the fact that Sonic couldn't hear her anymore. "Or maybe he finally realized how horrible..."

_He's dying..._

_No he's not._

_He's rotting... Rotting..._

_That was just a stupid dream!_

"Sonic?" Amy asked for the third time. "Sonic, what...?"

_Rotting..._

"Sonic!"

Sonic's mind finally snapped back to reality.

"What?"

"You were whispering something," Amy explained. "Well, your lips were moving at least. What are you thinking about?"

_Rotting dying rotting..._

"I had the weirdest dream," Sonic explained. "It's kind of bothering me."

"Why? What happened in you dream?"

"Shadow told me that..."

Sonic stopped immediately, noticing Shadow standing in the doorway. Shadow seemed angry by the way he was glaring at Sonic. Amy looked to the dark hedgehog as well, confused.

"What is it, Shad...?"

"Sonic, I need to talk to you," Shadow cut in, not caring that he was cutting Amy off. He looked to the pink hedgehog coldly. "_Alone_."

"What about?" Amy asked.

Shadow's glare startled her. It was the same heartless glare he had given her when they first met on Prison Island. She opened her mouth to speak, decided against it, and left without saying a word. Shadow closed the door before speaking.

"Sonic, we need to talk about something," Shadow explained, glaring down at the floor.

"I'm listening," Sonic said, not sure of what else to say. He couldn't believe how coldly Shadow was acting.

"About Esplouge, to be specific," Shadow added. He paused as if to let Sonic speak, but cut him off before giving him the chance. "You said you saw him at Amy's house, right?"

"Y- Yeah..."

"Do you think he's still there?"

"Probably not. Why do you ask?"

Shadow scowled. "That's really something between me and that little monster. I have a question to ask him."

_("If Tails is an idiot, why do you keep him around? Why don't you just leave him alone?"_

_"... Why should I tell you? Don't you think it'd make more sense to tell the person I keep kidnapping?")_

"Shadow..."

"I'm going to look for him," Shadow continued. "So I'm going to be gone for a little while."

"But...! Shadow, you're...! When...!"

"I understand that I'm not in the best shape, but I can always use my chaos control to get away if I need to. After all, even that persistent little brat can't use chaos control."

_I hope._

"I'll be fine."

"But..."

"I'm not asking for your permission," Shadow cut in. "This is too important for me to let it just sit there unanswered."

Before Sonic could say anything, Shadow was enveloped in a bright yellow light and in another moment, had vanished entirely. Sonic stared at the spot where Shadow had been standing.

"You really remind me of Esplouge sometimes, Shadow..."

--

Blaze returned to the base after about a half hour, holding bags upon bags of food and drink. He didn't have any idea what kinds of food Esplouge would like, so he got all kinds of random things. He set the bags on the ground, not really caring that some of the foods and beverages needed to be stored in a cold place. He was more interested in finding Esplouge to ask him about his strange mood swings.

"He's too young for mood swings..." Blaze commented under his breath. "Unless the chaos emeralds are causing it. Ha ha, yeah right."

_("That stupid disk he had with all the...! Nevermind.")_

"He got so angry when I questioned him further," Blaze muttered to himself. "I wonder why?"

--

"Let's go through the hints I've given you," Esplouge started. "I'm not sure if either of us remembers all of them. Eleven months _is_ a long time to wait after all. But you still remember a few, don't you?"

"N- not really..."

"Suppressed them, didn't you? Well, I guess that makes sense. After all, I did do some pretty horrible things to you. Ha ha, remember the first time I made you bleed? That was funny, wasn't it? I hadn't quite learned that bleeding doesn't always mean you're going to die, and I got so freaked out..."

"Esplouge?"

"...and... What?"

"Y- you were saying something else. You went off topic."

"Oh? Sorr..." Esplouge looked uncomfortable for a moment. "Anyway, ... Oh, yes. So you don't really remember much, do you?"

Tails shook his head.

"Damn. Well, let's go through the milder hints. I'd rather get through those first. First, there's the fact that I know what foods you like..."

"But you could be good at guessing," Tails pointed out, unaware of cutting Esplouge off.

"... Exactly. And then there are all of those things I told Shadow. I'm assuming he never told you, although I don't see how any of what I told him could possible help _you_ figure it out. ... I recall pointing out how similar our voices are. Or did you point that...? Oh! You pointed out how similar our voices were; I added that mine is also similar to Shadow's. "

"But anyone can have any kind of voice," Tails added. "Especially if they're good at disguising it."

"Right. That hint was virtually useless... Ah. You got very scared when I called you by your name. I've never called you that before, have I, Miles?"

Tails shuddered upon hearing his real name. "N- n- no... How do you know my...?"

"I'm trying to get you to figure it out, remember? How would I know something about you if you've never told me? No one had to tell me. I've always known you name. Ever since the moment I breathed my first breath."

"What? Th- that doesn't make any..."

"Oh, it does. Trust me. You need to know the answer before hand, but what I just said makes _perfect _sense. There's only one more thing I can think of that's related to something you already know. And this is the one thing I _know_ you haven't forgotten."

Tails sat silently for a split second before a light seemed to flicker in his mind.

"Y- your tails..."

Esplouge had gotten out of the chair by now and was standing directly in front of Tails, smirking.

"Yes, my little Miles. I recall you getting quite a shock at seeing my twin tails for the first time. But the funny thing is... Only _you_ were born with this little mutation."

Tails backed away instinctively.

"Wh- what?"

"I wasn't _born_ with these tails. In fact, I wasn't even born."

"Y- you weren't? But... But that's impossible...!"

Esplouge leaned in towards Tails, placing his hands on the bed next to Tails' sides. His face was barely an inch away from Tails'.

"Impossible? Ha, don't make me laugh. You know that Shadow was created, don't you?"

"Yes, but what does that...?"

"And you know how it was Eggman's grandfather who created Shadow, using DNA from multiple sources?"

"Yes, but...?"

"And you know that Eggman had found his grandfather's old video diaries? Every piece of his research?"

Tails was silent, staring at Esplouge with wide, frightened eyes.

"I see by the looks of you that you're finally piecing it together."

Esplouge backed off, now standing at least a foot away from the bed.

"Do you want to know what Eggman was working on for the few months before I came around? I can tell you about it all. Well, all that I know, anyway."

"O- okay..."

"Eggman was infuriated with Sonic after watching his 'latest and greatest plan' get foiled. So he got to thinking. 'What if I can create a creature that is smarter and stronger than that blasted blue hedgehog?' So he began to do some research, watching every last diary entry, taking notes, thinking of how to _improve_ it. He succeeded in _some_ aspects, I'll admit, but..."

Esplouge looked to the numerous cuts on his arms before continuing.

"Well, he pretty much failed. Shadow was the ultimate life, he had a heart and he could never die. I'd like to _think_ that I could never die, but I'd be lying to myself. And as for a heart? Ha! The day I grow a heart will be the day Shadow finally stops complaining about that stupid girl!"

"Esplouge?"

Esplouge's attention focused back on Tails. He almost seemed to have forgotten that Tails was there.

"Hunh?"

"How were you created?"

"Think about it. What have I...?"

"Whose DNA...?"

Esplouge looked shocked before smirking.

"Good boy. You asked the right question. There was one thing other than the DNA, but we should go for one step at a time."

"S- so... Wh- whose DNA did Eggman use?"

"You should know _one_ of them at least."

"M- mine...?"

"... and Shadow's."


	10. Break Down

Tails stared at Esplouge, his eyes equally wide with fear and disbelief.

"Wh- wh- what? M- m- me and Sh- Shadow?"

Esplouge was in front of Tails again, holding the smaller fox's throat with both hands. Tails tensed up. Esplouge had done this to him many times before, but for some reason, he just _knew_that Esplouge would kill him this time.

"That's right, Miles. You and Shadow. And there's one other thing; care to guess before I kill you?"

"Wh- what?"

Tails noticed that Esplouge's hands had begun to shake.

"I'm going to _kill_ you. I only wanted to _tell _you, I wanted you to be the first and only one who knew, save for Eggman of course. That dumb robot knew, he was there, but he doesn't remember for some reason. And now that you know, I can't let you go around telling your friends. They don't need to know, they've never needed to know. They'll never need to know anything that I've told you."

Esplouge's grip increased slightly, though not enough to hurt Tails.

"I... I promise I won't tell...!"

"You lie! You told me you would stay here, but you left at your first opportunity!_ I can't trust a single word that comes out of your mouth!_"

"I... meant it at the time..."

"Yes, _at the time_. Just like you're only trying to promise me this _at the time_. I can see right through you. You're just going to tell Sonic and Shadow the moment you escape. _But I won't let you!_"

Before Tails could argue, Esplouge's hands tightened significantly around his throat, not allowing him to breathe. Tails grabbed Esplouge's hands, trying to pry them off, but he couldn't find the strength.

_"The only way I can be happy is if I know you're dead_," Esplouge continued, almost to the point of sounding manic. "_I want to be __**happy**__, damn it!"_

Tails felt like his head would explode. He could barely hear Esplouge anymore.

"_Don't you want me to be __**happy**__, Tails?!_"

Just as Tails felt like he would pass out, Esplouge's hands left his throat. After the moment it took for his vision to clear, he saw that Esplouge was staring at the door, almost as if he were looking at something that only he could see. Tails just laid there, afraid to do anything else.

"What the hell?" Esplouge asked aloud, talking to himself. He almost seemed scared. Almost.

_He's going to kill me if I don't do something now..._

But what could he do? He was significantly weaker than Esplouge, the door was locked and only Esplouge had the key, and there was nothing in the room he could use to attack Esplouge with. Unless he tried to hold a pillow over Esplouge's face until he passed out.

"Where...?" Esplouge asked himself. "Here."

He gestured toward Tails, still looking at the door. He paused, seeming puzzled about something.

"I don't want to... Yes I do. No I don't. Yes... No... I... I don't know, okay? Stop it... Fuck... Just go away!"

Tails looked to the floor, trying to see if there was something he had missed. Under the chair that Esplouge had previously been sitting in, there was a shard of glass.

_I have to do something...._

Tails quietly crept out of the bed and tip-toed toward the glass. Esplouge didn't seem to notice him at all, too busy with whatever he was talking to.

"Nnngh... Stop it... I don't wanna, okay? Leave me... Leave me the hell alone!"

Tails picked up the glass shard carefully, trying not to cut himself by accident. He crept up behind Esplouge and tried to hold the glass to Esplouge's throat, only to get thrown into the wall.

"What the _hell_was that?" Esplouge asked angrily, picking up the glass while glaring at Tails. "Were you trying to _kill_ me?!"

"N- n- no!"

"Then _what_," Esplouge slashed Tails with the glass, cutting his cheek,"the _hell_," slashed again, this time cutting Tails' arm, "were you _planning_," the glass dove deeply into Tails' back, causing him to scream, "on doing," the glass was in Tails' back again, deeper, "_with a shard of fucking __**glass**_?!"

Tails was curled up, trying to protect his stomach and heart. Tears streamed down his cheeks uncontrollably, a bitter reaction to the pain he was in. He could feel the glass on the back of his neck, ready to cut through the skin.

"_Well?!_"

"I... I just want to go home!" Tails sobbed. He was on the verge of screaming. "Please, I didn't do anything to you! I've never done _anything_ to you, _why the hell are you doing this to me?!_"

Esplouge grabbed Tails' hand and wrapped his fingers around the glass. He forced Tails to hold the glass to his throat.

"Don't you feel good?" Esplouge asked. "Now you're holding it to _my_ throat. Now I'm at your mercy. You can do whatever you want to me and I have to obey. You could kill me if you wanted to, but remember, I won't stay down for long. Still, you could go home to your friends if you killed me right now."

He leaned in closer to Tails, nearly forcing him down. His free hand went to Tails' back, feeling for the blood. When he found the blood, his claws dug into the wound, deeper and deeper.

"You'd like that, wouldn't you? Being back with your stupid friends..."

Tails twisted and turned from the pain. Esplouge held him still, not wanting him to move. His grip on Tails seemed to be weakening. The glass fell out of his grip entirely.

"Wouldn't that be lovely? You should to that, it might help both of us. Ha ha ha... Or maybe it'll only make me worse, since that's what happened last time. Ha ha h... I'm losing st- stable... stability... losing it..."

Esplouge collapsed, shaking uncontrollably. Tails was immediately over him, worried and wanting to help.

"... losing it again... My chest... it's on fire... Death is burning in my chest, ha ha ha..." Esplouge's body seemed to relax. "Too much exposure... to dark... ess... wants it back... kill me... It..."

"Esplouge?" Tails asked.

"... if I get near it... kill me... if I... kill me... if... _kill me_..."

"E- Esplouge? What...?"

"...it'll kill... forever... I don't wanna.... why'd he... rew up...?"

"Esplouge?"

Esplouge's eyes opened partway. He stared at Tails, smiling weakly. His eyes didn't seem to be looking at Tails. but at something far away.

"I didn't... I didn't do it... I swear..."

"Esplouge, what are you saying?"

"I love looking at you..."

"What?"

"... so small... weak... tiny... easy... to kill..."

"Esplouge?!"

Esplouge's eyes were closing. His breathing had slowed down a lot, as did his pulse.

"... again and... again and... again... and..."

"Esplouge, t- try to stay awake," Tails ordered.

"...again... in my dreams.... you're already dead... ha ha ha... so am I... we can... forever... _forever_..."

"Esplouge, you have to stay awake."

"...I don't wanna.... no, no sleep, sleep.... don't need... awake... sleep, sleep.... kzzzzzt...."

Esplouge drifted off into sleep.

--

Sonic got out of bed, nearly stepping on the glass that still littered the floor. He nearly tripped over himself as he walked, but he didn't care. He wanted to be around the others.

"Please let Tails be okay," he muttered to himself. "Please don't let Esplouge hurt him."

He reached the door, and opened it, seeing Amy standing on the other side of the door. She looked concerned when she saw him.

"Sonic, are you sure you should be...?"

"Yes."

"Where's...?"

"He left to find Esplouge."

"What?! Why?"

Sonic managed a small shrug. "Beats me. You know what a hothead he can be."

"But he could get hurt!"

"He'll be fine. He could just use chaos control to get himself out of trouble."

Amy didn't seem satisfied with that answer, but decided it was no use arguing.

"And what about you?" she asked. "Are you sure you should be walking around?"

"I don't want to stay in there," Sonic explained, walking toward the staircase. Amy followed. "It just reminds me that Tails isn't here."

Amy nodded. "So, what should we do now?"

"Rest for a bit, then look for him again."

Amy opened her mouth to speak, but Sonic cut her off.

"I think I'll stay here this time. As much as I hate to admit it, I'm really not up to it..."

Amy gave a half smile.

"Don't worry, we'll be more careful this time. He's not even going to know what hit him, especially if Shadow finds him before anyone else."

Amy helped Sonic get down the stairs. They both knew he didn't need it, but it made her feel helpful, and he was too tired to object.

"I hope Shadow finds him first," Sonic said. "He'd probably save me the trouble of killing that little bastard."

Amy nodded in agreement. They had successfully reached the living room, where everyone else (except for Metal Sonic) was already sitting and talking. Sonic seemed confused.

"Metal Sonic's not here," Sonic noted.

"None of us know what's wrong with him, but he's not responding to anything," Amy explained.

"We even held a chaos emerald in front of him," Rouge added, finally noticing the two hedgehogs. "Nothing."

"What happened to him?" Knuckles asked.

"I don't know," Sonic admitted. "He flipped out suddenly. He's not broken, is he?"

"I'm sure Tails could fix him," Rouge explained. "Assuming he isn't already dead, of course."

"We don't need your negativity," Knuckles growled. "Try to be more positive."

"Hey, I'm only here because I was asked to come," Rouge explained, not even trying to hide how annoyed she was. "I don't _have_..."

"Would you two shut up," Sonic cut in. "Look, the last thing we need to do is argue. Tails is counting on us to help him. Arguing won't get us anywhere."

Knuckles and Rouge stopped arguing.

"Fine. But how are we going to search for Esplouge?" Rouge asked. "We can hardly go in pairs anymore, seeing as the only ones fit to search are me, Arcane, and Knuckles."

"I'm going, too," Amy added.

"_What_?" Sonic seemed the most shocked, but everyone else had shared the same word.

"I'm going," Amy repeated. "I want revenge for what he did to my face. But you're right, Rouge, it'd make more sense for all of us to split up."

"Are you sure about this?" Sonic asked.

Amy nodded. "You bet I am."

"Where's Shadow?" Knuckles asked suddenly, noticing that Shadow wasn't there.

"He left to go find Esplouge," Sonic explained. "I tried to talk him out of it, but you know how he gets."

Rouge sighed. "Great, he's going to get himself killed. We'd better find Esplouge before he finds Shadow."

She was out the door before anyone could respond.

"I'm with her," Knuckles agreed. "We should hurry."

He and Arcane both left.

Amy and Sonic stood there for a moment.

"Well, I guess I should go, too."

Sonic grabbed Amy's hand before she could get away. She looked at him, confused.

"Amy... Promise me you'll be careful."

Amy smiled.

"You know I will." She slipped her hand out of Sonic's grasp. "I won't fall for his tricks this time. I promise."

Sonic watched Amy leave. It almost made him sad that she wasn't there anymore, but he countered that by letting himself fall onto the couch to take another nap.

--

Shadow appeared outside of Amy's apartment complex in a flash of purplish light. The building had already burned down, the firemen had already come and gone, there was nothing that could lead him to Esplouge. He glared out of frustration.

"Where the hell is he?" He asked no one in particular.

_Calm down. Getting angry won't help. Now, where did you find him last time?_

"One of Eggman's bases. It was kind of close to the city. But there's no way he'd go back there. Not after what happened."

_So he probably chose a different base of Eggman's. Probably a little farther away._

"... Crap, so I'm back to square one..."

A red glint suddenly caught his eye. He looked in its direction and saw the red chaos emerald resting on the ground a few yards away. He ran to it and picked it up.

"This should be helpful," Shadow said to himself. "Chaos Control!"

--

Tails waited next to Esplouge for a while, trying to make sure that he was okay. When he was sure Esplouge was fine, he picked up the glass, grabbed the key, unlocked the door, and left, locking the door behind himself.

"I'm really sorry, Esplouge," Tails apologized. "But I need a head start."

"There you are."

Tails jumped and whirled around, looking to Blaze with shock.

"When... When'd you get here?"

"Just now. Hey, do you know where Esplouge is? I really need to ask him something."

"I... He's..." Tails pointed toward the door. "In there. But he's not awake."

Blaze looked confused. "He's not?"

"He..."

Tails' stomach growled loudly. Blaze stared, almost amused.

"You can explain it to me after you eat," Blaze offered.

--

"So he just passed out?" Blaze asked. "Just like that?"

Tails had just finished eating and had to admit that eating after so long felt weird. It hurt, yet it made him feel better. More energized, and definitely with an clearer pattern of thought.

_Maybe Esplouge's just hungry..._

"Yeah. It was really weird, but..."

He had refrained from telling Blaze what Esplouge had told him. This was one promise he really didn't want to break. Esplouge had actually guilted him into feeling this way, which was odd to admit, even if it was only to himself.

"I don't know... Maybe his body's just trying to get some sleep? He hates sleeping."

"Yeah, there's a lot of things on his hate list," Blaze commented. "He gets mad at me for stupid things like asking him how old he is. I thought only girls were self-conscious about their age..."

Tails suppressed a shudder. He knew Esplouge was only around a year old, but he wouldn't have felt right telling Blaze. Heck, Blaze probably wouldn't have believed him anyway.

"And he mentioned something about a disk, but he blew up at me when I asked about it."

"Disk?"

"So you don't know either?"

_Esplouge never mentioned a disk to me. Not that I remember anyway..._

"Did he mention anything about the disk? Like what was on it?"

Blaze tried to remember.

"Not that I recall..."

"_**Fuck!**_"

Tails and Blaze jumped at the sound of Esplouge's voice.

"What the...? What's he so pissed about?" Blaze asked.

Tails held out the key to the room he had locked Esplouge in.

"I don't think he can get out," Tails explained. "He doesn't sound very happy. Maybe I should let him..."

"Why, so he can hurt you again?" Blaze cut in. "Don't think I haven't noticed those cuts on your back."

"He... He just got a little mad..."

"I can't believe you! Why the hell do you let him do things like that to you?"

"Because..."

_I'm weaker than him._

_He'll get mad._

_He'll hurt me worse. _

_He'll hurt my friends._

_He'll kill me._

_He scares me._

_I don't like seeing him in pain._

"I... I don't know," Tails lied.

Blaze looked at him, disbelieving.

"I find it hard to believe that you would honestly have no reason for acting the way you do. You can keep your reasons a secret if you want; I don't particularly care about that. But you need to understand that I'm trying to protect you from him. Letting him hurt you is counterproductive, Tails."

_Why do I feel so weird when I say this kids name?_

Tails looked to his feet.

"I'm really sorry."

Without warning, Tails began to run back to the room Esplouge was in. Blaze caught up to him with no effort, however.

"I'm not letting you go in there," Blaze explained sternly. "I'm not going to let him kill you."

Tails struggled to free his wrist from Blaze's grasp.

"Why the hell should you even care?!" Tails asked. "Why don't you just leave me the hell alone?!"

Tails tried harder, only succeeding in hurting his own wrist.

"_Let me go, damn it! I have to make sure he's...!"_

Blaze slapped Tails with the back of his hand. He finally let Tails go, watching him drop to the ground from confusion and hurt.

"Wh- why did you...?"

"What the hell was that?" Blaze cut in. "Now you're even talking like him."

Tails just stared at him, looking afraid of being hit again.

"Don't you understand what he's doing to you?" Blaze asked. "He's taking away who you are."

"Th- that's just stupid," Tails remarked as he stood back up. "I'm still me. The lack of sleep is what's giving me such a short fuse, that's all. It's impossible to sleep in here."

"It's a river in Egypt, Tails."

"I'm not denying it," Tails argued. "Look.... Just leave me alone, okay? I appreciate that you want to protect me, but I think I'm doing just fine."

Tails turned to walk away, stopping only when Blaze spoke.

"Yeah, those cuts on your back are _perfect_ proof of that," the hedgehog remarked sarcastically. "Gee, I'm sorry for trying to help! I guess I'll just let him kill you now!"

Tails didn't look to him.

"I'd prefer if you did that."

Tails walked the rest of the way to the door with Blaze following close behind. Tails unlocked the door and opened it slowly so as to not disturb Esplouge. He and Blaze were met with a shocking sight.

Esplouge wasn't in the room anymore.


	11. Chapter 11

_("Is that what Chaos Control is?")_

Writhing.

_("I am the world's Ultimate Life Form.")_

Agonizing.

_("I will grant you one wish...")_

Pain.

Esplouge's eyes shot open as he remembered a memory, one that hadn't actually happened to him.

_But... This is Shadow's...!_

"Maria!" he gasped pathetically. His throat was constricted. He could hardly breathe, much less speak.

His entire body ached. He groaned and sat up, wondering what had happened to him. When did he even leave the base? Why was he outside, surrounded by trees and the rest of nature?

He thought back. He remembered being trapped in a room, pounding against the door, swearing, wanting to be anywhere but there, willing with all his might to leave...

"Did I...?"

He looked to the sapphire chaos emerald thoughtfully. It gave off a faint reddish glow, just as the other emeralds did when he was near them. The emerald was the only normal thing there, as far as he was concerned.

"But I can't..."

He laid back down, too tired to continue sitting. How long had it been since he had a decent night's sleep? It felt like forever. His body welcomed the rest with open arms, taking no mind that he was outside and on the ground. He wasn't entirely sure where he was, but he didn't care. All he wanted to do was sleep.

"I can't use chaos control..."

He yawned and closed his eyes.

"Can I?"

--

Tails looked into the room in disbelief. How could Esplouge have gotten out? The door was locked, and to his knowledge, Esplouge couldn't use chaos control. It didn't make sense that Esplouge could just vanish like that.

_He has to be hiding in here..._

Tails cautiously crept into the room, sure that Esplouge had to be hiding somewhere. Under the bed? Behind the open door perhaps?

"Where'd he go?" Blaze asked, looking the room over in disbelief.

"If I knew that, wouldn't I...?!" Tails caught himself. Why was he feeling so angry? There certainly wasn't any reason for it. "I mean... I thought he was in here..."

Tails went back to looking, checking under the bed.

_He's got to still be in here..._

"So where'd he go?" Blaze repeated.

"Didn't I just say I don't know?!" Tails asked irritably.

_It must be the lack of sleep. The lack of sleep is affecting me._

"So... What do we do now?" Tails asked, trying to sound as friendly as possible.

Blaze paused for a moment, thoughtful.

"I think you should go home."

"But...!"

"I'm just trying to keep you safe," Blaze explained. "I don't like seeing Esplouge hurting you like that. Besides, don't you miss being around people who actually care about you?"

Tails looked to his feet, feeling defeated. He obviously missed his friends, especially Sonic.

_He must be really worried about me by now..._

"But... Esplouge'll kill them if I..."

Tails trailed off. Blaze looked at him thoughtfully.

"I'm just thinking of you. I'm sure your friends will protect you from him."

_Why do you even care? Besides, I'm more worried about what he'll do to Sonic and Shadow._

"But he'll kill them."

"I'll make sure that doesn't happen."

Tails looked to the hedgehog, confused.

_I thought you were on Esplouge's side. Why are you so determined to help me?_

"How?"

Blaze smirked.

"Just trust me on this, okay?"

--

After some convincing, Blaze finally persuaded Tails to go back home. They walked together, Tails leading the way. No other people were outside, probably because it was already night time.

The moment his house entered his vision, he ran to it. It was automatic, uncontrollable. He missed being home almost as much as he missed all of his friends. Blaze caught up with him.

"Blaze... uh... Thanks."

Blaze smiled.

"It's no big deal. I'm just trying to help out." He noticed something odd. "The light's on. Is somebody else in there?"

"It's probably Sonic."

Tails knocked on the door, feeling awkward about having to knock to enter his own home. When Sonic answered the door, Tails couldn't restrain himself from hugging his friend.

"T- Tails?!"

Tails was crying. He was so happy to be home, to be safe, to be with his best friend again, that he was actually crying with joy.

Sonic didn't even try to hide his surprise.

"But when did...? How did...?"

Tails looked to Blaze.

"He helped me," the fox explained. "Esplouge really is back, Sonic! He kidnapped me again, and...!"

Sonic hugged Tails tightly, still unable to believe he was back. It had only been a couple days, but it felt like a lifetime had passed.

"I know. It's okay, Tails. Everything's gonna be okay."

Sonic looked to Blaze, partly glaring, partly thankful. He still didn't trust Blaze, but at the same time, he felt he had to be grateful. Blaze had saved his and Amy's lives and now he had returned Tails safely home, probably at great personal risk.

"Thanks for helping him," Sonic muttered.

"It's no problem. Really."

_Except Esplouge is going to kill me if he finds out about this..._

"Well... See ya."

With that, Blaze was off. He was ready to find Esplouge.

--

Sonic closed the door, still unable to believe Tails was there with him. He felt so happy and at the same time, he felt sad. He had noticed the scars on Tails' back, which he knew couldn't be taken as a good sign.

Tails just stood next to his couch, still unable to believe he was back. Escaping hadn't been nearly as easy before. He had a strong feeling that Esplouge was watching him, allowing him a moment of happiness, of hopefulness, before taking him away again.

"Are you okay?" Sonic asked.

_He looks so frightened..._

"Did Esplouge hurt you? What happened?"

Tails was still crying, unable to stop his tears.

"I don't really want to talk about it right now... Can I just... I want to go to bed. I'm really tired."

Sonic smiled warmly.

"Of course you can go to bed. This is your house."

He watched as Tails slowly climbed up the stairs. He couldn't imagine what Tails had been through, but he was happy to see he was okay.

Besides, they could always talk in the morning.

--

_I never thought sleep could feel so good. Wasting my time with this nonsense, thinking of nothing, allowing my mind to wander and be free... It's somehow... nice. It's something beyond my "programming." It's something I don't understand, but for once..._

A violent pain suddenly washed over his body. He cringed in pain, startled, screamed. His eyes darted open, looking for the source of that pain.

Shadow was standing less than twenty feet from him, and in his hand, glowing brightly, was the red chaos emerald.

_Oh fuck..._

Nothing came to mind, no speech, no witty remarks. His mind went blank from fear, something he wasn't used to.

_Oh hell no..._

"Hey," Shadow greeted coolly.

"Uh... I... uh..."

His words were a garbled mess. He paused a moment, trying to think.

_He's going to kill me!_

"I'm... not in the mood to fight you."

Shadow approached him, stopping when he noticed Esplouge was backing away.

_Why does he seem so scared?_

"Oh, really? That sure is a change." Shadow glared angrily. "Where's Tails?"

"What...?"

"You heard me. Tell me where he is!"

"I... I don't know."

Shadow rushed forward and grabbed Esplouge by the chest tuft. Esplouge screamed, feeling the red chaos emeralds energy burning him from the inside.

_My chest feels like it's on fire... What the fuck did Eggman do to me?!_

Shadow dropped Esplouge, feeling the same burning pain in his hand. He backed off a little, unsure of what was going on. Esplouge continued to writhe on the ground, screaming loudly.

"I seriously have no idea where he is _can you get that damn thing away from me now?!_"

"What...?"

Esplouge began to spit up blood.

_What the fuck did Eggman do to me?!_

Shadow backed further away, confused and more than a little disturbed by the sight in front of him. What was causing Esplouge so much pain? The emerald in his hands was still glowing brightly and heating up. He could feel it through his gloves.

Esplouge forced himself to stop writhing. The emerald was far enough away from him now. He wiped the blood from his lips, suddenly disgusted by the taste. Why did it suddenly taste so bitter?

_Why isn't it sweet like it usually is?_

"What the heck was that?" Shadow asked, stunned.

Esplouge couldn't even hear him. His ears were ringing too loudly.

_It hurts, it hurts it hurts, it hurts __**why does it hurt?!**_

Esplouge noticed Shadow nearing him again and backed away weakly.

"Please... Please don't do it again... It hurt so much the first time..." He sounded exhausted, winded.

"What the fuck just happened?" Shadow asked. He didn't sound the least bit concerned, only confused.

"Any... Anything but that... I'll take anything but that... Cut me, beat me, _burn_ me, I don't even _care_... Just don't..."

More blood rushed up his throat for him to spit out.

"Agggck... Why does it do this to me? I don't understand..."

He tried to stay up, supporting himself with shaking arms.

Shadow took a step closer, still keeping the emerald a safe distance from Esplouge.

"Tell me what just happened!"

"I don't... It has..."

Esplouge opened his eyes weakly, looking directly at the emerald. He could feel it looking back at him, mocking his pain and frustration. He glared at it.

"That emerald..."

"Emerald...? What does the emerald have to do with...?!"

"You already know, don't you?" He tried to stand, only to fall back down. He settled with looking at Shadow. "That I'm an experiment... You already figured it out, right?"

Shadow appeared distrusting. Why was Esplouge bringing it up? He usually acted so secretive before...

"Yes. I figured it out a while ago."

_There's a glitch in the system... Kzzzt..._

"Well... You know how things..."

_glitches_

"...things can go wrong? You know, right?"

Anything to keep the conversation going and Shadow a safe distance away from him. No matter how much personal information he had to dispel. Besides, if Shadow already knew anyway, what was the point of hiding it?

"Of course," Shadow answered. "I've watched experiments fail."

Esplouge suppressed the feeling of throwing up.

_I can't fucking take this...!_

"And... And you know what's wrong with... me, right?"

"No."

_I feel like I'm going to die...!_

"Please... Can't you see that I'm... Suffering? Have a heart, Shadow..."

"What about you?" Shadow asked angrily. "You heartless little...!"

"Look at yourself... You're... disappointing her... Acting like... me... Maria wouldn't like seeing you this way..."

Shadow suppressed his anger.

_Don't you dare say her name._

"Who created you? The professor, or...?"

"His grandson."

"I knew it!"

_Am I really going to die...?_

"Please..."

_I don't wanna die..._

"I'll do... anything, just... go away."

"Why? We've only just begun this little conversation. We're finally getting somewhere."

Involuntary tears streamed down Esplouge's cheeks. He was getting frustrated. Why couldn't Shadow just leave him alone?

_Go the fuck away!!_

"Tails is probably back at his own home by now. Go check..."

"Why should I even believe you?" Shadow asked skeptically. "How do I know you haven't already killed him?!"

"Ha, that's a good one, Shads. Don't you remember me telling you that... that I would never kill Tails? I enjoy his company too much. He's so... so much better than the rest of you, the way he... The way he acts when he's around me... Just me and him..."

_I really need to shut up... Is pain a truth serum or something?!_

"Besides, I'm too weak to lie. Can't think straight. Too hard."

Esplouge sat up with some effort and looked at Shadow's eyes.

_I'm going to hate myself for this..._

He threw his emerald to Shadow, barely able to even throw the jewel far enough. Shadow jumped slightly, not expecting it.

"What...?"

"I'll give you the emerald... So you'll believe me. I... I _promise _we can continue our conversation later... I really need... some down time..."

Shadow dropped the red emerald and approached Esplouge.

"You and I both know I can't trust you."

Esplouge shrank back.

_I hate to admit it... but I need Tails right now._

Shadow kicked Esplouge to the ground, refusing to go easy on the wounded fox. Esplouge cringed.

"I know you'd take advantage of the situation if I was in your position," Shadow explained. "I'm being generous by keeping you away from the emerald."

He stomped violently on Esplouge's stomach, forcing the fox to scream. Esplouge was shaking from pain and fear. Blood was trickling down the side of his mouth again.

_Generous my ass, you self-righteous prick..._

"So you're... gonna kill me...? Yeah, that worked really well the last time..."

Shadow stomped harder, this time on Esplouge's face. The fox was bleeding out of his nose now, feeling as if part of his skull had been shattered.

_I need you, Tails..._

Shadow glared, preparing to stomp on the fox again.

_I need you to protect me from him, Tails!!_

"I'm going to make sure you die this time."


	12. Protect Me

Tails shuffled up the stairs and to his room. The world felt like it was swimming underneath his feet. He was so tired, he felt so dizzy... He felt like he would throw up if he didn't get some sleep soon. He wasn't used to staying up as long as he had.

He didn't even bother turning on the light in his room. He knew where everything was, there was no reason for him to turn it on. He just trudged to his bed, noticing that his carpet was covered with shards of something.

_Glass...? No, I've been around Esplouge too long. Yeah, that's it._

He didn't care. He could always clean up tomorrow.

He crawled into bed, not even bothering to cover himself with his blanket or to take off his shoes. He was home, laying on his nice, comfy bed. He finally felt safe again, and now he could get some much needed sleep.

--

Tails woke up to a bright light flashing in his face. He wearily looked toward the source and was suddenly wide awake. Standing at the foot of his bed was a very bloody and very battered Esplouge.

"E- Es...!!"

Esplouge placed a finger against Tails' lips, instructing him to be quiet. Tails shivered, frightened.

_He's going to kidnap me again, he's going to hurt me, he's going to...!_

"Shhh... Be quiet, Tails."

"But...!!"

Esplouge's bloody hand covered Tails' entire mouth impatiently. Tails could taste the blood and immediately felt nauseous.

"Please, I'm in no mood for... further complications. Just... Just stay quiet, okay? I'm not here to hurt you."

"You're... not?" Tails asked, slightly muffled from Esplouge's hand still being over his mouth.

_What else would he be here for?_

Esplouge sat down on the bed, unable to stand from how violently his legs were shaking. He coughed a few times, feeling blood rush up his throat. He swallowed it even though the taste was beginning to disgust him. He didn't want his blood to stain Tails' carpet.

_Why does it taste so bitter? Blood is supposed to be sweet._

"I need someplace to rest for a while... If that's okay with you." He couldn't even maintain eye contact with Tails, looking at the floor instead. "I mean... You'd help me if I really needed it, wouldn't you?" He swallowed hard. "You're my... My _friend_, right? You're my best... est little... _friend_."

_What the hell am I saying?!_

"F- _friend_?" Tails asked in disbelief.

_I... Must have misheard him. There's no way he would call _anyone_ his..._

"I like you... and you take care of me... Friends are like that, right?"

"You _like_ me?"

"No," he answered bluntly. "But I don't hate you, either... There isn't a word for how I feel about you."

_Fuck, I need to stop talking like this to him. _

"You'll take care of me, right?"

He looked at Tails seriously, unnerving the young fox. Tails scooted away nervously.

"I'll... try my hardest... But Sonic and Shadow aren't..."

_I can't let him get hurt any more than he already is..._

"I just need a place to rest for a while. The crawl space under your bed, even. Somewhere where I can hide and rest."

"But... Aren't you going to be uncomfortable laying on the floor?"

"Tails, do you not see the wounds? The open gashes? Trust me, the floor under your bed is going to feel like a cloud."

_Like resting on a little cloud..._

_What?_

"Er... Well, I mean... At least you have a carpet. I only need an hour. Maybe two."

"N- no, you should stay as long as you need to," Tails offered. "I'll keep Sonic and the others out of my room for you."

_I already know I'm going to regret this. He's just going to hurt me like he always does... But I can't just..._

"... sad."

The sound of Esplouge's voice brought him back from his thoughts.

"What?"

"You sound sad. Why?"

Tails backed away about an inch, not really sure how to answer. Would Esplouge get mad at him if he admitted to being scared?

_At least he can't hurt me right now. I don't think he can, anyway._

"... I'm... still afraid..."

Esplouge pushed Tails down onto the bed, using all of his strength just to keep from falling over. Tails gasped loudly from the sudden motion, but otherwise remained quiet.

"I'm afraid too, you brat. I'm afraid of seeming weak and pathetic. I'm afraid of having to rely on others, and I'm also afriad of Shadow killing me. I'm afraid of fire and anything associated with it. I have fears that I try to keep hidden, and one of them is admitting I have them in the first place!"

Esplouge's grip on Tails' wrists loosened.

"I'm afraid of _you_, but I'm still asking you for your help."

Tails' eyes widened with shock.

_I _know _I heard that wrong._

Tails opened his mouth to ask Esplouge to repeat what he had said, but was cut off.

"Now that we've had this intimate moment and all, can I trust you to keep me hidden and to not tell anyone about this conversation? You've always been trustworthy before."

Tails nodded.

"O- okay... Yes, you can stay here for as long as you need to."

Esplouge backed off, allowing Tails to sit up.

"Thank..." He cut himself off. "Uh... I'll try not to stay here too long. I don't need Shadow to find me again."

"Did... Did Shadow do this to you?" Tails asked, looking concerned.

"Yes. ... I didn't really retaliate, if you were wondering. I just ran away with my tails between my legs. He's actually... I think he's downstairs now. In here, I mean. I can feel his chaos energy. ... Tails, I have another favor to ask. I'll explain it to you later, but can you keep the red chaos emerald away from your room? As far away from me as possible."

Tails began to ask why and cut himself off. "Okay. I'll keep it far away."

"I appreciate it."

"I don't mind. I don't like seeing you hurt."

"Why is that?" Esplouge asked. By now he was laying down, curled up comfortably. Looking away from Tails. "Please tell me. It's been... bothering me for a while. Why do you care for me like this when you know I'll just harm you later? It's obviously not in your best interest to do so."

"I'm... not sure."

"Oh, come on. You must have _some_ reason."

Tails backed away, trying to get closer to the door. He had no desire to stay in the room with Esplouge, even if he would be eaten up inside while trying to keep it all a secret from Sonic.

"I really don't..."

"It's okay. I'm too tired to know what either of us is saying anyway."

"What?"

Tails waited for a moment but got no response. He approached Esplouge cautiously, checking to see if he was asleep or...

He was sound asleep.


	13. Conflict

Tails backed out of the room quietly, so as to not disturb Esplouge. He closed the door as quietly as he possibly could, trying to avoid making any noise.

_Keeping Esplouge a secret from them is going to be hard... If anyone has a chaos emerald, that alone will give it away..._

He walked to the staircase and froze. Shadow was downstairs, talking to Sonic. And in his hand was the red chaos emerald.

_Oh no, Shadow's the last person Esplouge needs right now. And he's holding the red emerald. How am I going to keep it away from my room?_

He looked to the door to his room thoughtfully.

_Why was he so specific about the emerald? Aren't they all pretty much the same?_

"Hey, Tails!" Sonic greeted happily. "Couldn't sleep?"

Tails smiled. Sonic was already back to his normal, optimistic self. It made him happy to see Sonic so cheerful.

"Y- yeah... I... I'm not really tired anymore," he responded awkwardly. "Uh... What were you two talking about?"

"I ran into Esplouge in the woods," Shadow explained. "It was really weird, though. He didn't fight back or anything."

_He knows that Esplouge is here, doesn't he? Why does he keep looking toward my room? ... Maybe I'm just being paranoid. There's no way he could know, right?_

"He flipped out when I got this emerald near him," Shadow continued, unaware that Tails was only listening with half an ear. "He... I think it hurt him. Isn't that strange?"

"Y- yeah. It sure is."

"Do you know anything about it?" Shadow asked.

_Oh god, he knows, he knows and he's going to kill Esplouge and it'll be all my fault because I can't protect him and...!_

"N- no, why would you think that?" Tails answered defensively.

_Oh crap, now I really look like I'm hiding something._

"Well, I thought that since you've been... around him more than anyone else, you might know. He talks to you a lot, doesn't he?"

"Y- yes. H- how did you know that?"

Stuttering. Something he only did when he was scared or nervous. Even if Shadow didn't see through it, Sonic would. Sonic knew him better than anyone.

"He told me," Shadow answered.

"Are you okay, Tails?" Sonic asked. He was concerned, thinking that something Esplouge had done might have traumatized him.

"Y- yeah, I'm fine. Why do you ask?"

"You don't normally stutter," Sonic pointed out. "Is there something you want to talk about? You know Shadow and I will listen."

"N- no... I'm fine. I'm... I'm fine. Uh... Hey, how about we talk outside?"

_That was stupid._

"What? Why?" Sonic asked. "I thought you'd want to be home."

"Besides, with Esplouge out and about, it'd be a lot safer to stay inside," Shadow added. "At least we have walls and doors in here."

"B- but... I... Esplouge kept me in a room the whole time I was with him," Tails explained. "I... I really want to go outside."

"Maybe tomorrow," Sonic said.

"B- but...!"

"Tails, you understand we're only trying to look out for you, don't you?" Shadow asked. "We want to protect you from him."

Tails gave up the argument. He knew he was getting nowhere with it, so it lost its point.

"O- okay... But... uh... Can we stay downstairs?"

"Tails, you're acting really weird," Sonic pointed out. "Are you sure you're okay?"

Tails could hear Esplouge's voice in his head, ringing in his ears.

_("You'd help me if I really needed it, wouldn't you? You're my... My _friend_, right? You're my best... est little... _friend_.")_

_I can't betray his trust like that. He trusts me to protect him._

"I... I'm fine, Sonic. Why do you keep asking me that?"

"Well, you don't normally stutter nearly this much..." Sonic began.

"... And the emeralds only glow like this when Esplouge is near them, which suggests that he's nearby," Shadow finished, holding up his emerald. It was glowing brightly, just as he had expected.

_Why do they glow when he's near them, anyway?_

Tails wasn't sure how to respond to them. He couldn't lie to Sonic, and he couldn't argue with Shadow.

_They knew the whole time, didn't they? Have they been toying with me?!_

"He's up there, isn't he?" Sonic asked.

"He... uh..."

_I can't betray his trust, I can't let them hurt him, I can't do this, __**I can't fucking lie to Sonic!**_

"He's..."

_He's hurt, he's asleep for once, he needs to rest, maybe sleep will make him more sane, he deprives himself of sleep after all, he just needs some sleep and maybe some food and he'll be all better and then all this can stop and..._

Tails was holding onto the guardrail to the staircase, gripping it as tightly as he could. Where was a stress ball when you needed one?

"Tails, you have to tell us if he's up there," Sonic ordered seriously. "We've got to protect you."

"**No you don't!!**" Tails screamed, his voice breaking partway through.

_I just need some sleep, some rest, some food, and I'll be all better and... I'm acting like him again... I'm... Oh god no..._

Without warning, Shadow was immediately directly in front of him. It felt so threatening, the way Shadow was standing so close to him and the angry look on his face.

_Does Esplouge ever feel like this when Shadow's near him? Does Esplouge ever feel scared?_

"I have risked my fucking _life_ for you, and you're saying it was _pointless_?" Shadow began, forcing his voice to stay reasonably level. "We should have just left you with him so he could continue to torture you and kill innocent people, is that it? I nearly had the _life_ beaten out of me multiple times because I had to save your sorry ass, and now you're saying it was for _nothing?!_"

"Sh- Shadow..."

"No, you're right. I don't have to protect you from him. I _want _to protect you because you're much too young to be put through something like this. You're such a nice kid, I'd really hate for Esplouge to do something terrible to you, which we all know is inevitable."

"You don't want to protect me, you want to get even with him," Tails accused. "He attacked you before he kidnapped me the first time. You just want revenge."

"... He's in your room, isn't he?" Shadow asked.

"I... I'm not going to let you hurt him, Shadow. I... I promised him I would..."

"Tails, he's going to hurt you!" Sonic exclaimed, running up the stairs. "What the heck were you thinking?!"

"... He's hurt really bad. I... I don't think he's strong enough right now to... to actually hurt anyone... He just needs a place to rest for a little while. That's all."

"Tails, you have to understand he's only going to hurt you again," Sonic pointed out. "He's only taking advantage of you."

"H- how do you know he doesn't really... How do you know he's not going to be different from now on?" Tails asked. "How do you...?"

Esplouge was behind him, holding him. Tails gasped from the sudden action, surprised Esplouge was even able to stand.

_Was he faking it the whole time? Was he just pretending to be hurt?_

"Little Miles has a point. How _do_ you know I haven't turned over a new leaf?"

"Because _experiments_ can't override their own programming," Shadow growled. "You can't alter your personality in any way."

"Ex- experiment?!" Sonic asked.

"Your original programming was to be the ultimate life, to have unlimited power but to never use it for any selfish reasons. You were created to help those that suffer here on this planet. I seem to recall you overriding that in a fit of genocidal rage toward humanity."

"That..."

Shadow glared furiously. He couldn't think of a response.

"From what I know of my own programming, I was created to destroy you and Sonic and anyone else who stood in Eggman's way," Esplouge continued, pulling Tails closer to him. He knew Tails wouldn't struggle. "Do you want to know where my creator is now? He's burning in Hell because I sent him there!"

"Things can go wrong with experiments," Shadow pointed out.

"What?"

"You said so yourself. Things can go wrong. Tampering with life is pretty stupid, when you think about it. So many things can go wrong with people who were born naturally, but we've got it so much worse."

"... In my situation, it was because Eggman was being an idiot and not paying attention. What's your excuse?"

Esplouge pulled a shard of glass out of one of his tattered gloves and held it to Tails' throat.

"I've been really patient with you, but now I'm going to have to buckle down. Get that damn emerald away from me, or I swear I'll kill him."

"What is it with you and the emerald anyway?" Shadow asked. "Tell us that and I'll be happy to keep it away from you."

"Liar. You'd try to get it near me. You already saw how much that thing hurts me. Besides, I honestly don't know what's up with that stupid thing. If I knew what was wrong, I'd get Tails to fix it for me. I know he'd love to help me out..."

His focus turned to the small fox in his arms.

"... Wouldn't you? You'd love to help me out."

"Y- y - yes..."

"... And if I could acquire something with all my personal data on it, I could trust you to use it to help me, couldn't I? You wouldn't use that kind of thing to _hurt_ me, would you?"

He slid the glass gently across Tails' throat.

"N- n- no..."

"Shadow, this is your last warning. Drop the emerald, or I'll have to hurt him."

Shadow tossed the emerald toward Esplouge, who immediately dropped Tails and ran. He stood awkwardly at the end of the hallway, staring at the emerald as if it was the devil himself.

"That wasn't funny!" Esplouge yelled. "You could have...!"

_Even I don't know what would have happened._

"Are you okay?" Tails asked. Even after having his life threatened, he still found it in himself to care about Esplouge. He began to run toward Esplouge, only to have Shadow grab his wrist.

"Shadow, what are you...?!"

"He's going to _hurt_ you. Probably even _kill_ you. You know..."

"Ha! You know as well as I do I'd never kill him!" Esplouge shouted. He then looked to Tails slyly. "I could have killed you so many times before, but I chose not to. I love being around you, my sweet little Tails."

Tails shrank back, admittedly creeped out.

"I... I'm not..."

"Shut the fuck up," Shadow cut in. "Do you have _any_ idea how creepy you sound?!"

Esplouge looked annoyed.

"Creepy? How do I sound creepy? I just called him "my sweet". I call Amy that, too. Hell, I say that to some of the humans that I kill, right before I rip out their pathetic little hearts. That's not creepy. That's what you usually call "evil"."

His focus turned back to Tails.

"Come here."

Tails shrank back, his ears flattening against his head. He knew Esplouge was going to hurt him again, he knew Sonic and Shadow were only thinking of what was in his best interest...

"N- no..."

"What?!" Esplouge asked.

_He's too much of a pushover to defy me..._

"I... I said no. I'm... I'm sick of you treating me... the way you treat me. You keep... toying with me, telling me you care about me, that you'd never harm me or allow anyone else to harm me, and then you cut me and lick my wounds because you have some sick obsession with the taste of blood and... and... And I'm sick of it. I'm sick of being terrified whenever I think about you or whenever I go outside."

Tails picked up the chaos emerald, but made no attempt to get it near Esplouge. The emerald shined brightly all of a sudden, which seemed to frighten Esplouge.

"**I can't even look at my fucking friends anymore because of **_**you**_**! Every time I see them, I think of all the terrible things you've done to Amy and Shadow and Sonic, all the attempts you've made at their lives, every little thing you've done to them **_**BECAUSE YOU'RE FUCKING PSYCHO!!**_"

Tails' eyes were overflowing with tears by now. He couldn't believe he had just screamed all those things at Esplouge of all people, even if it was how he truly felt. He was frightened now, thinking of all the horrible things Esplouge would do to him and his fiends just for that single outburst.

Esplouge stared at the smaller fox in disbelief. He couldn't even feel angry, he was so shocked.

"I believe the proper term for what I am is "sadist"," Esplouge said after what felt like forever. "I'm a _sadist_. I enjoy seeing people suffering, especially you, Tails." He grinned widely. "It's like a drug, like I said earlier. An addiction. I'm _addicted_ to you, Miles."

Tails was shaking uncontrollably, unable to control his sadness, pain, anger, frustration... He felt like he would explode from all of the negative emotions inside of him. The chaos emerald in his hands was burning him, but he refused to let go of it.

"How does he know your real name?" Sonic asked, still shocked from Tails' outburst.

"Because..."

"Tails, you promised you wouldn't tell him, remember?!" Esplouge said frantically. "I asked you not to tell him!"

"But..."

Esplouge gripped his glass shard so tightly, it cut into his hand. He didn't notice it was still there until he felt a trickle of blood run down his arm. He looked to the blood thoughtfully, loosening his grip around the glass, holding it in his open palm.

"E- Esplouge...?" Tails asked. "What are you...?"

Without warning, Esplouge cut deep into his arm, creating a large gash that extended from his elbow to his wrist. Tails flinched, Sonic and Shadow seemed shocked, and Esplouge just sat there, seeming pleased.

"I'll mutilate myself if you don't come with me," Esplouge threatened. "Making threats on your life doesn't seem to work anymore. So now I'll make a threat on mine. Come with me or I'll torture myself in front of you."

_You suffer either way, so I'll win no matter what, Miles._

"Th- that's not fair..."

Esplouge cut his other arm, creating a much deeper wound. Tails cried out for him to stop.

"Esplouge, stop hurting yourself! Please stop!"

He dropped the emerald, tried to run to Esplouge, to stop him from doing any further harm to himself, but Sonic caught him by the wrist.

"Tails, you can't give in to him!" Sonic ordered. "He's only going to hurt you again!"

"But he's hurt and I...!"

_I have to protect him..._

"You have no obligations to him," Shadow explained, glaring at Esplouge furiously. "He's only using you."

"Do you want me to cut my throat?" Esplouge asked. "Maybe I'll do my throat next..."

"_No_!" Tails cried, fighting against Sonic and Shadow, angry at himself for being so weak, too weak to protect Esplouge. "Sonic, Shadow, let me go!!"

"Tails, snap out of it!" Sonic shouted. "He's going to _hurt_ you! He's enjoying every moment of this because he likes to _torture_ you! How can you not see it?!"

"But..." Tails murmured, his struggling stopping. "But I have to... I have to make sure he's okay... I'm the only one who even cares about him!"

"He has a point, Sonic," Esplouge explained, keeping his voice fairly low. "He really is the only person who's ever showed me any compassion. Any kindness."

Esplouge stood up on shaking legs. Struggling.

"I keep asking him why, but he never gives me an answer. Why do you care about me so much, Tails? After all the stuff I've done to you, I'm shocked you don't hate me as much as Shadow does."

Tails tried to back away, so Sonic and Shadow let him go. Tails hid behind them.

"Do you really think that cowering behind your friends is going to help?" Esplouge asked, seeming amused and annoyed at the same time. "I can't touch you. The chaos emerald is right at your feet, I can't go anywhere near you."

Esplouge licked the blood off one of his arms. It was sweet again.

_Finally..._

"Could you kick the emerald away for me? I'd really like it if you did that for me, Tails."

Tails did as he was told, hardly hesitating. The emerald went flying back into the wall on the other side of the hall, far away from Esplouge. Shadow ran after the gem, but couldn't find it in himself to pick it up. Would it still burn him?

"Come to me, Tails," Esplouge ordered. "I want to tell you something."

"Why can't you say it out loud then?" Sonic asked, untrusting. "We all know you're an experiment, what else are you hiding?"

"This is something only Tails and I can discuss. It doesn't pertain to you."

"Then...?!"

Esplouge threw the glass shard over the railing of the staircase, letting it fall to the lower floor. His expression was serious, not dangerous or maniacal... He looked almost desperate, but he was trying to hide it.

"Look, Sonic, I'm not very patient and I'd really like to leave. Just let Tails go, I'll say what I have to say, and I'll be off."

"I still don't..."

Esplouge stared Sonic down.

"I'm not going to hurt him," Esplouge assured. "Not this time."

Sonic begrudgingly let Tails go. Tails just stood there, unsure of what to do.

"Come here, Tails. I have nothing to hurt you with now."

Tails walked toward Esplouge, frightened out of his mind.

_He's going to hurt me, he has another shard of glass in his other glove, he has claws, he's going to kill me and then he's going to kill Sonic and Shadow and it'll be all my fault and..._

He stopped less than a foot away, afraid to look at Esplouge.

"Hold up your arms, Tails."

"Wh- what?"

"Hold them straight out as if you're stretching."

Tails did as he was told, feeling confused. He was even more confused when Esplouge clung to him.

_He's... hugging me?_

Tails flinched, not sure of how to feel, then returned the hug.

"Tails, I need you to do something for me," Esplouge whispered, keeping his voice too low for Sonic or Shadow to hear. He spoke directly into Tails' ear. "It's really important, and it's not something I want Sonic or Shadow or any of your friends to know about. Will you help me?"

"Wh- what is it?" Tails asked, keeping his voice low as well.

"I have a disk hidden away in my base," Esplouge began. Tails had to strain to hear him. "It has _everything _on it. All of my data, I mean. It was one of the only things that I was able to steal from Eggman, and it's really important that I find out what's on it. I need you to hack into it for me."

"Wh- what? But, can't you...?"

"I realize I was created from your DNA, but I'm just not good with computers. I've tried, but the stupid disk... Look, if I bring it to you, will you hack it for me? There's something I need to find out, and I'm pretty sure it'd be on that disk."

"What is it?"

Esplouge released the hug, moving his lips closer to Tails' ear. His clawed hands rested on Tails' shoulders.

"The red chaos emerald keeps hurting me when I go near it, and I don't know why."

He moved away from Tails, trying to appear nonthreatening.

"Can I trust you to help me?" he asked.

Tails nodded.

"O- okay... I'll help you."

Esplouge smiled.

"Great. That's all I wanted to hear."

He backed even further away from Tails and looked to Sonic.

"Okay, you see? He's not hurt, I didn't threaten anyone, and now I'd like to go. Can I do that?"

"You seriously think we'd just let you go?" Shadow asked, picking up the red emerald, which was burning with energy. "Give us one reason not to kill you."

"... I'm not in the mood, Shads..."

"I could just throw this emerald at you and watch you squirm, if you'd prefer that."

"I haven't even done anything to you guys!" Esplouge argued defensively. "I just came here to talk to Tails, I did that, none of you are hurt or traumatized any more than you were before I came here, can't you just let me go?!"

"So what, you want us to just forget about everything you've done in the past?" Sonic asked. "We know you're just gonig to hurt Tails again sooner or later, why shouldn't we stop you right now?"

"... _Think_, you blue idiot. I was crushed to death, and that didn't kill me. What makes you think anything else will do any better? Besides, kicking someone while they're down seems like something Shadow would do, Sonic. It would be against your morals to hurt someone in my current position, no matter how much you hated them."

Sonic clenched his fists angrily. He rushed toward Esplouge, only stopping when Tails blocked him.

"Sonic, you can't...!"

"Move it, Tails," Sonic ordered, trying his best not to sound angry.

"I won't let you hurt him," Tails mumbled, looking to the floor nervously. Standing up to anyone, especially Sonic, was difficult for him. "He's..."

"Tails...?" Esplouge asked, appearing shocked.

_Why would he protect me? He can't stand up to Sonic like that normally, why would he do it for me?_

"You don't have to defend me, Tails."

Tails looked to Esplouge, surprised.

"B- but...!"

"He's right, you don't have to protect him," Shadow interrupted. "Step aside."

"No! I'm not going to let you...!"

"Tails, I really didn't want to cause this much trouble... Just let them... I mean, you'll have to explain yourself after all of this is over, why not save a few hours?"

"I want to protect you."

Esplouge grabbed Tails' shoulders threateningly.

"_Why_, Tails? Why the _fuck_ do you want to protect _me_?!"

Sonic threw Esplouge off of Tails and into the wall.

"Leave him alone!" Sonic screamed.

"I wasn't _hurting _him, you bastard!" Esplouge retorted. "Christ, can't you at least wait until I'm actually doing something _threatening_?"

"What, you want me to wait until you kill him or something?" Sonic asked sarcastically.

"That's not what I...!"

"**Stop fighting!**" Tails cried. All eyes were suddenly on him, making him feel uncomfortable. "Uhm... I mean, I really don't..."

_("You must have your reasons...")_

"Wh- when you and... And Gamma were fighting, you trusted Amy's judgement..." Tails explained. "Why can't you trust mine? Esplouge isn't up for a battle right now, so why can't you just let him go? He's not going to hurt me or kidnap me on his way out, so..."

"He's going to do it again sometime, Tails," Shadow explained. "Don't you get it? We only want to make sure he doesn't..."

"He's not going to kill me, Shadow," Tails explained. "You and I both know that. You'd... You'd never kill me, right, Esplouge?"

Esplouge looked to Tails, wondering why he was still trying to protect him. There certainly wasn't any reason for it.

"... He's right, Shadow. I find his company much too... Oh, what's the word? Pleasant? Maybe not quite that, but I'm sure you get the picture."

"But..."

Neither Sonic nor Shadow could think of a response.

"Tails?" Esplouge asked. "Why _do_ you want to protect me? Will you think about it?"

Tails nodded.

"Can I leave?" Esplouge asked, looking to Sonic and Shadow. "Or do neither of you trust Tails' judgement?"

Sonic scowled. "You're just going to hurt him again."

"Besides, can't you just Chaos Control you're way out?" Shadow asked coldly. "You did it when we met earlier."

"... That was a fluke. There's no way I can take doing that again."

"You know Chaos Control?" Tails asked.

"... Again, it was a fluke. Besides, I had a chaos emerald with me when I used it. I don't have one now, thanks to you."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Shadow asked.

"I gave you the damn thing so you'd leave me alone!" Esplouge growled. "Unless you'd be willing to give it back..."

Shadow held out the red emerlad threateningly. Esplouge backed into the wall fearfully.

"How about this one?" Shadow asked, malicious humor in his voice. "This one will work, too, right?"

"N- no."

"Esplouge?" Tails asked quietly.

"What?" Esplouge asked back, keeping his voice low as well.

"How good are you at jumping?"

"What, you mean how high?"

"No, more like... landing. How are you at landing?"

Esplouge looked to the door nearest himself. It was closer to him than it was to Sonic.

"... I can climb down the side of your house pretty fast, if you're suggesting what I'm thinking."

"What are you two talking about?" Sonic questioned.

"Sonic, Shadow, look out behind you!" Tails exclaimed suddenly.

Both of the hedgehogs turned, wondering what Tails could be talking about, and Esplouge took the opprotunity to run into the room nearest himself. Before Sonic and Shadow knew what was happening, the window was open and Esplouge was gone.

_Thank you, Tails._


	14. Chapter 14

Esplouge ran as fast as he could, wanting nothing more than to return to his base. The faster he got there, the faster he could get the disk to Tails. He cursed the fact that he was too tired and weak to use Chaos Control so he could get there faster, but that anger only helped him run faster. All he could focus on was getting that disk to Tails so he could finally figure out why the red emerald hurt him so much.

_Although there's always a chance that the disk won't explain it..._

He pushed the paranoia out of his mind for the time being. After all, there had to be _something_ to explain it. Besides, even if there wasn't, Tails could figure it out anyway. Tails was smart enough to do that, right?

When he finally got back to his base, he nearly collapsed. He wasn't used to running this much. Hell, he wasn't used to using chaos control which he had done

_What? Twice?_

He couldn't even remember now. He just laid on the floor and stared up at the ceiling.

_Eggman didn't 'program' me to use chaos control. So why can I all of a sudden use it now?_

He frowned, wondering what else Eggman could have messed up on.

_For all I know, he could have planted a friggen bomb in me without realizing it. Bastard._

Okay, so a bomb planted inside him was a bit of an exaggeration, but he couldn't help but wonder what Eggman could have done to make him so screwed up. It had to be more than the mad scientist just not paying attention to how much chaos energy went inside of his creation. There had to be something more than that. Chaos energy couldn't drive someone completely _insane_, could it?

_I wouldn't be too sure about that. Chaos was a little hard to calm down when he had absorbed the energy from the chaos emeralds. ... But he only absorbed the dark energy, didn't he? I think I remember Tails pointing that out. Or maybe that girl did. I know Tails was there, at least. Someone pointed out to Sonic that he could use the light energy to become Super Sonic, and it worked. That's kind of what happened to me. I remember..._

-Flashback-

Esplouge couldn't move or respond to the world around him. Eggman hadn't quite finished with creating him yet, although (as Esplouge could feel) the fox did have a body. He could feel sharp pricks in his wrists, as if there were needles in him. There were some in his neck as well.

He almost felt bored, although the emotion hadn't been able to register in his mind. He hadn't gotten used to being alive yet (which made sense, because he wasn't fully alive just yet), so emotions and thoughts could hardly register in his premature mind. All he could do was lay there and listen to the conversation between his creator and Metal Sonic.

"Everything appears to be going well, Master," Metal Sonic said.

"Excellent," Eggman replied. His mind seemed to be only partly there, as if he was thinking about something else. In retrospect, it was probably something related to finally ridding himself of that pesky blue hedgehog.

Esplouge began to feel a much sharper pain, which would normally have caused him to flinch had he been capable of movement. He had gotten used to feeling sharp, burning pain followed by a much gentler feeling, but this time, the pain was much stronger and it didn't seem to be stopping.

_I hurt..._

His very first thought. Two simple words, but that was all his mind was capable of thinking.

"M- Master..." Metal Sonic had begun to sound very nervous, as if something bad was happening. "Master, something..."

"Not now, Metal Sonic," Eggman said sharply.

"But Master..."

_How can I get the hurt to stop?_

"Something is going wrong with the experiment," Metal Sonic explained. "The emeralds energy isn't evenly dividing itself anymore."

Esplouge felt his fingers flex. The motion excited him, giving him the knowledge that he could do more than just lay there. He flexed his fingers again before opening his eyes. His vision was horribly blurry for the moment, but he had a feeling it would pass. Something in him knew the blindness was only temporary.

_I tear it out at the source._

Esplouge realized that the sourse of the pain was whatever was in his wrists and neck, so he tore them out. The world was beginning to come into focus. He stood up, facing Metal Sonic with a feeling of anger. Why did he feel so angry?

"M- M- Master..." Metal Sonic stammered, regardless of being a robot. Could a simple machine feel fear?

_Can you tell me what's hurting?_

Metal Sonic just stared at Esplouge. Eggman didn't notice that Esplouge had awoken until he turned around, and by then, it was too late anyway.

-End Flashback-

"'The emeralds energy is not evenly dividing itself'..." Esplouge muttered to himself. "Metal Sonic mentioned something about the emeralds energy not dividing itself properly. It's probably safe to assume I recieved more of the darker energy, seeing as the light energy probably wouldn't have caused me to become so screwed up."

_Was that what I kept feeling when I was still dormant? Was that gentle feeling actually some of the emeralds light energy?_

"But I'm not good," Esplouge said out loud to himself. "I'm evil. I... I don't know what's wrong with me, but..."

"But what?"

Esplouge jumped and let out a yell, not expecting anyone else to be there with him. He turned around and saw Blaze just staring at him.

"B- Blaze?" Esplouge asked. "Wh- when did you get back?"

"Does that really matter?" Blaze asked coldly. Why on earth was he so...?

"Is there something wrong?" Esplouge asked without realizing.

Blaze appeared distrusting. "What, you're actually concerned about someone other than yourself for once? That's unlike you."

"I'm not concerned. I'm just curious. What the hell's gotten into you, Blaze?"

"Do you have any idea what you've done to that kid?" Blaze asked angrily.

"Who? Tails? He's fine, I just got back from his house."

"_What?!_"

"Yeah. I'm guessing you took him there? That was really nice of you to do that for him, especially considering how angry it would have made me if I had returned here to find him gone. But what's done is done."

Blaze immediately pinned Esplouge to the wall, holding the fox's throat threateningly.

"_What the hell did you do to him?!_" Blaze asked angrily. "_If you did anything to him, I'll...!_"

"Calm down. We only talked. He promised he'd help me with something, actually."

"Oh really?" Blaze asked, distrusting. "And how did you get him to agree to help you? Did you threaten to kill his parents or..."

Esplouge slapped Blaze across the face, digging his claws into the hedgehog's cheek in the process. Blaze let Esplouge go in favor of holding his hands to his bleeding cheek, wondering what he had said to anger the fox so greatly. He stole a glance at Esplouge, who now looked absolutely furious.

"**Don't you dare say that!**" Esplouge screamed. His eyes were brimming with tears, although it was impossible to tell if they were angry tears or not.

"What the fuck, Esplouge?" Blaze asked. "I was being sarcastic, even _you_ wouldn't sink that low."

"Tails' parents are already dead," Esplouge explained, forcing himself to remain calm as best he could. His voice was shaking.

_Blaze doesn't know what happened to them, there's no reason to get so angry, he doesn't know, there's no reason..._

Blaze wasn't sure how to respond to what Esplouge had said. Had Esplouge already killed them?

"He doesn't like to talk about it," Esplouge continued. "I don't like to think about it, either."

_Calm down, Blaze doesn't know what happened to them, he's not being an ass on purpose, calm down..._

"What?" Blaze asked, unsure of what else to say. "You didn't...?"

Esplouge shot Blaze a cold glare.

_He's still my ally, I could still use him, ripping off his arms and shoving them down his throat wouldn't be helpful..._

"No. I wasn't alive back then. And as I already said, I don't like to... to..."

Esplouge collapsed into tears. He tried to hide his face behind his hands, but it was useless. It was already obvious that he was crying.

"Are you okay?" Blaze asked, keeping his voice calm. He wasn't sure how to react to Esplouge crying, especially when he thought about the kinds of things Esplouge did to people. It shocked him that Esplouge would have a soft side to him at all, much less one that cried.

_Should I comfort him?_

Esplouge wouldn't answer.

_I'm not going to let him hear my whiny little voice. My voice always gets really whiny when I cry..._

"What did Tails say he would help you with?" Blaze asked, trying to get Esplouge's mind off of whatever it was that was making him so sad. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

Esplouge just stared at Blaze, wiping away tears and forcing back new ones.

"I'm not weak..." Esplouge muttered in Tails' voice. "I'm not weak..."

"I never said you were," Blaze said, forcing back the shock that Esplouge could mimic Tails' voice so flawlessly. That was a question for another time. "I don't think you're weak, Esplouge. If you were weak, half my face wouldn't be bleeding right now."

Esplouge seemed to just notice that blood was covering the hedgehog's face.

"I... I'm sorry, I just... Why did you have to mention my... his parents?"

Blaze ignored the question. "Is there any way I can help you?"

Esplouge nodded. "Y- yeah... Uh..."

Esplouge walked away, so Blaze followed. They eventually reached a room that was covered with random splatters of blood. It was the room where Blaze had first seen what the red emerald could do to Esplouge. Esplouge stepped over the overturned chair and made his way to a desk that was in the far corner. He opened the drawer, pulled out a disk, and went back to Blaze.

"Tails said he would hack into this for me," Esplouge explained. His voice had calmed down a lot, which pleased both himself and the hedgehog. "It's nothing dangerous. I'm just not very good at hacking."

"What's on it?" Blaze asked suspiciously. It didn't help when he noticed Eggman's little logo on the disk. "Something of Eggman's?"

"Kind of. It's more mine than his. Besides, Eggman can't use it anymore, so it's not like it matters."

"What do you mean?" Blaze asked. "Why can't...?"

Esplouge smirked. "I killed him with his own robot. It was bound to happen eventually anyway. If I wouldn't have killed him, G.U.N. would have. And if they failed, Sonic would have killed him by accident. And if _that _hadn't happened... Well, Eggman's not exactly health-conscious, so..."

He noticed he was still holding the disk, which brought him back from his rant.

"Oh, yeah. Could you take this to Tails? It'd be really helpful, especially considering Sonic and Shadow are there. I... I caused Tails a bit of trouble when I went there. I think it would be best if I stayed away from him for a while."

Blaze took the disk, but still seemed unsure of whether or not to help Esplouge.

"It's not going to corrupt his computer, if that's what you're thinking," Esplouge explained. "It's not going to make the computer come to life in the middle of the night to eat him or something. There's information on it that I need to see."

"Information about what?" Blaze asked.

"If you bring it to Tails, he could tell you," Esplouge said.

"No, I want _you _to tell me," Blaze objected. "What kind of information could you possibly need from one of Eggman's disks?"

"Do you really want to know?" Esplouge asked. "Is it really that important to you?"

"You do keep a lot of secrets from me," Blaze explained. "If we're going to work together, don't you think we should understand each other a little?"

"Honestly, I'm content with knowing nothing about you but your name, your pyrokinesis, and that you're only helping me because I promised you money and power."

"Well, that's fine for you, but what about me?" Blaze asked. "If that's really all you care to know about me, that's fine, but how are we going to be able to work together if I don't understand you and your motives?"

"I already told you my little motive is mass murder," Esplouge explained. "You already know that my goal is killing as many people at once as I possibly can. Ridding the world of all those useless humans who only serve to mess everything up. And you agreed to help me. What more do you want?"

"I'd like to know what's on this disk," Blaze explained, holding up the disk Esplouge had just given him.

"It's not related to killing, I assure you."

"I don't care. Either you tell me what's on this disk, or I'll destroy it."

Esplouge felt the blood drain from his face.

"N- no! You... You can't...!"

"Then tell me why you want Tails to hack into it for you."

"There's no way you'd believe me," Esplouge said.

"Try me," Blaze challenged.

"The disk has all of my data on it," Esplouge explained. Blaze didn't respond, so he continued. "What, you didn't actually think something like me could be _born_ into the world, did you?"

Blaze backed away from Esplouge, more than a little creeped out.

"What did you...? What _are _you exactly?" the hedgehog asked.

"I'm an experiment. Eggman's first and only attempt at creating a match for Shadow the ultimate life form. That disk is like my genetic code. Every little thing about me is on there, and Tails promised he'd help me hack into it. After all, I don't know everything that's on it. I was foolish to kill Eggman as early as I did, but I guess it's too late to be bothered by it now. Now, will you bring it to Tails for me? The faster you get it to him, the faster you can have all the answers you want."

"What?"

"I'm not going to stop you from looking at what's on the disk. You're obviously curious about what's on there, and I'll have no way to stop you while I'm here."

"You're not going?" Blaze asked.

"I'll get there eventually. I'm a little tired and, as I already said, I caused a few problems for Tails..."

--

Sonic and Shadow stared at Tails in disbelief. Why on earth had he allowed Esplouge to escape? Both of the hedgehogs figured Tails must have had some sort of reason, but why couldn't he have allowed them to rough up Esplouge a little first?

Tails merely looked at them, unsure of what to say. Esplouge would have stayed there much longer if Tails hadn't told him to escape through a window in another room. Esplouge would still be there causing all sorts of trouble and confusion not only for Tails, but for Sonic and Shadow as well. He knew he had some explaining to do.

"Guys..."

"Why did you let him go?" Shadow asked calmly. "We weren't going to _kill _him or anything, even though he deserves it."

"And you know he's only going to hurt you again," Sonic added, trying to sound calm but failing. He couldn't even tell how he was feeling, if he was angry or merely upset. He and Shadow had had the perfect opportunity to stop Esplouge once and for all, and then Tails had to go and ruin it.

"Don't you trust me?" Tails asked, the question aimed primarily at Sonic. "Do you trust that maybe I can judge things on my own? You trusted Amy's judgement with Gamma and..."

"We're going back to that?!" Sonic asked, irritated. "Tails, that robot was coming after _me_. It wasn't threatening you. This is an entirely different situation!"

"Actually, I think Tails has a point," Shadow cut in.

"How would you know?" Sonic asked. "You weren't even there!"

Shadow ignored the blue hedgehog.

"You trusted something that Amy said in the past. You valued her judgement, even though it didn't agree with whatever it was you were led to believe about the robot. I think Tails is trying to ask for you to trust his judgement in this situation as well. He obviously trusts Esplouge for whatever reason, and we have to respect that. Am I right?"

Shadow looked to Tails, who merely nodded. It was almost as if Shadow had read his mind. Why in the world was Shadow able to understand him more than his best friend?

"If Tails thinks we can trust Esplouge for the time being, we'll just have to trust and protect him whenever Esplouge decides to attack him again," Shadow finished. "There's not much else we can do."

"You guys really don't have to protect me..." Tails added, keeping his voice as quiet as he could.

"You're right, we don't _have _to protect you, but we want to," Shadow explained. "Besides, you aren't going to be able to convince Sonic that you're okay on your own."

Tails just stared at them, suddenly at a loss for words.

"We care about you, Tails," Sonic added, his voice finally returning to its usual calm and happy tone. "You know that."

Tails immediately clung to Sonic, trying his best to force back the tears that were now falling onto Sonic's chest. Sonic pat Tails' head comfortingly, trying to say that it was all going to be okay without actually speaking. He knew that all Tails needed was to be around his friends. Words just weren't necessary.


	15. Chapter 15

By the next morning, everything felt as though it had gone back to normal. It was almost as though Esplouge could attack at one minute, but once everything was said and done, once Tails was back home, the threat had gone. Just as they had all gotten used to Eggman and his antics, it appeared that everyone had gotten used to Esplouge.

That is, all except for Tails.

Tails awoke from a dreamless sleep, and for the first few minutes, all he could do was stare at the ceiling. It was hard for him to believe that a mere twenty-four hours ago, he was in Esplouge's base.

But now he was home and he was safe. Sonic and Shadow were both there to protect him, so there was absolutely nothing for him to worry about.

_Except, of course, Esplouge coming here and kidnapping me again._

_No, Sonic and Shadow wouldn't let him do it. They care about me. They're my friends, after all._

Tails smiled at the thought. Sonic and Shadow were his friends, and they would do everything in their power to protect him. Just knowing that made him feel at ease.

Tails hopped out of bed, not even bothering to make it, and headed downstairs. Shadow was still asleep on the couch (the only spare bed Tails had was for Sonic) and Sonic himself was still asleep in the guest room. It was still a little early in the morning, but Tails couldn't sleep. Even though he had his friends with him, he still felt a little jittery. After all, if Esplouge _were_ to come...

But he wouldn't. It would be a little while at the very least. After all, why would Esplouge come in broad daylight when he could wait until nightfall? Tails hadn't forgotten about his promise to work on the disk Esplouge had told him about, but he was sure Esplouge wouldn't be coming when the others could see him. No, he'd probably wait until Tails was asleep and the break in through Tails' bedroom window or something.

Tails blocked out the thought and went to the kitchen to get some breakfast. Maybe if his belly was full, he could get back to sleep. He was still a little tired and all...

Right as Tails was reaching for some bread to make toast, he heard a soft knock from his front door. He stopped, wondering if he was imagining things, until he heard another slightly louder knock. He went to his front door immediately, knowing full well that Esplouge wouldn't be there. And he was right.

When he opened the door (which immediatley woke Shadow up, defeating the purpose of the soft knocking), Tails was met with the sight of Blaze, who was holding a small, black computer disk. Shadow was immeddiately at Tails' side, partly from wondering what was going on, partly from distrust toward Blaze.

_Why is it always so hot when he's around? It's like he's a walking fireball..._

"Uh... Good... Good morning, Blaze," Tails greeted. He hadn't noticed the disk yet, so he asked, "What are you doing here?"

Blaze held the disk in plainer view.

"Esplouge said you promised to hack into this for him," Blaze explained. "He asked me to deliver it to you."

Tails accepted the disk.

_I thought Esplouge would bring this to me himself..._

Why had he felt sad at that? Why would it matter if Esplouge was there or not? After all, it was safer and easier if Esplouge wasn't around.

"Oh, yeah. Thanks."

"Just out of curiosity, do you know what's on it?" Blaze asked. He already knew full well that it was Esplouge's genetic information, all of the boring facts and data, but he couldn't help but wonder if Tails knew as well.

"Not really," Tails admitted. "He mentioned something about the red chaos emerald hurting him when he goes near it, but that's all I remember. Why, is there something I need to know?"

_... Well, he probably has an idea anyway..._

"No reason. Just curious."

For a moment, the three stood there, none of them quite sure what to say to the other two. Finally, Blaze muttered a half-hearted "Bye," and ran off. Shadow and Tails stood side-by-side for a moment before either of them spoke.

"So was that what he talked to you about last night?" Shadow asked, pointing to the disk. "He wanted you to hack into something for him?"

Tails nodded. "Yeah. He wasn't too specific about what I'm looking for, though."

Tails absent-mindedly turned the disk around in his hands, eventually spotting Eggman's trademark logo.

"Something of Eggman's?"

"Tails, do you really think it's safe to hack into that thing?" Shadow asked. "After all, it could have a computer virus in it."

Tails continued to stare at the Eggman logo.

_("Do you know where my creator is now? He's burning in Hell because I sent him there!")_

Was Esplouge telling the truth? Was Eggman really...?

"I don't think Esplouge would do anything like that," Tails muttered. "Esplouge wouldn't kill Eggman, would he?"

"He would," Shadow said. "And he did. Metal Sonic... Oh, that's right!"

Shadow ran off, leaving Tails confused. Tails decided to follow, figuring Shadow was intending to show him something anyway. They both arrived at the door to the closet under the staircase and Shadow opened it.

"What the...?"

Metal Sonic (who had been stashed under the staircase after his "shut-down") was nowhere to be seen.

"What is it, Shadow?" Tails asked.

"Metal... He should still be here."

"What are you two talking about?" Sonic asked, walking downstairs sleepily.

"Sonic, do you know where Metal Sonic went?" Shadow asked.

"Hunh? Isn't he...?"

"He's not in here anymore," Shadow explained.

"What are you talking about?" Tails asked.

"Metal Sonic was here but he... I don't even know. Esplouge was here and Metal Sonic just... collapsed all of a sudden. It was..."

_("I can't tell what he's doing. What is Esplouge doing, Sonic?")_

"... It was really weird," Sonic finished.

"So... Where is Metal Sonic now?" Tails asked.

"Unless he's invisible now, I'm betting he's not in this house anymore," Sonic remarked sarcastically. "And I don't think Esplouge would have taken him. Or could have, for that matter."

"Do you think he... restarted and left?" Tails asked, not quite sure what a good replacement for 'wake up' would be.

"I doubt it," Shadow said. "After all, he wouldn't respond to anything when we tried to wake him up, so why would he suddenly get up and waltz away?"

Everyone was silent for a moment, trying to think of something to explain what could have happened.

"This is just weird," Sonic said.

--

Metal Sonic stumbled down the streets of the city, his legs not functioning as well as they should have. He knew that it was only temporary, he knew that Eggman had built him well. His body was just taking some time to reconnect properly with his artificial brain.

There weren't many people around, which suited the robot just fine. After all, he wasn't in the mood to fight or kill or threaten any of these humans. And the humans weren't stupid enough to try to provoke him in any way. There was only one being worth his time and energy right now and that was Esplouge.

"I am going to kill you, Esplouge," Metal Sonic droned. "I am going to kill you for killing my master."


	16. Chapter 16

Metal Sonic wandered around for hours, searching at least three of Eggman's previous bases before finally finding the one Esplouge was hiding out in. He remembered Sonic and Shadow mentioning that Esplouge tended to hole up in Eggman's abandoned bases, which only made his search easier. Esplouge was obviously near the city, and Metal Sonic knew where all of those bases would be located. It had only been a matter of finding the correct one, and it wasn't even noon yet when he stumbled upon Esplouge himself.

Esplouge hadn't noticed him at first. The fox was sitting with his back to Metal Sonic, muttering incoherent words to himself. It almost sounded like Esplouge was in a trance.

Metal Sonic would have smirked had he had a mouth, but he contented himself with pinning Esplouge to the ground, taking the fox off guard.

"Wh- what the fu...?"

Metal Sonic attempted to punch Esplouge, but was thrown off.

"You little bastard!" Metal Sonic exclaimed. "You killed my master! _Our_ master!"

"Oh, so you finally remembered?" Esplouge asked.

Metal Sonic attempted to pin Esplouge again, but Esplouge dodged. Metal Sonic's body still wasn't entirely reconnected to his robotic brain.

"I will kill you," Metal Sonic threatened, venom dripping from his monotone voice. "You will die for killing our master."

Esplouge punched Metal Sonic, and the robot noticed something he had looked over before; Esplouge's wrists were bleeding. Metal Sonic grabbed Esplouge's wrists and threw him into the wall. Esplouge collapsed on impact, but quickly pulled himself back up.

_I'm not going to let some useless robot defeat me..._

"Eggman never was my master. He merely created me and gave me a reason to feel intense _hate_."

Esplouge barely dodged a punch. He grabbed Metal Sonic's arms from behind and held him tightly, speaking into the robot's artificial ear.

"He never cared about _you_," Esplouge nearly whispered. "You were _nothing_ to him. If you were damaged, he could rebuild you and erase whatever he didn't want you to remember. Wasn't that how you forgot me?"

Metal Sonic flipped Esplouge over himself, throwing the fox onto the ground.

"You liar. My master cared about me more than any other robot. I was special to him."

"If you were so special, why would he make you forget me?"

Esplouge rolled to dodge yet another punch.

"He did not make me forget," Metal Sonic growled. "_You _made me forget."

Metal Sonic pinned Esplouge to the ground yet again.

"_Why?! Why did you get out without a scratch while I suffered memory loss?!_" Metal Sonic screamed. "_You were still _in_ there! You stayed in there, you should have _died _you horrible little bastard!_"

"That was my intent, you stupid robot," Esplouge retorted. "Why on earth would I have done that if I wasn't planning on dying in the process?"

"What? I don't understand."

"What, you seriously thought I was expecting to live through that?" Esplouge asked. "The fucking base _blew up_, you idiot!"

"But I... don't understand. Eggman builds all of his robots with self preservation in mind..."

Esplouge punched Metal Sonic's eyes, knocking the robot off momentarily.

"In case you haven't noticed, I am not a robot. Eggman didn't program crap into me. My _programming _is merely Shadow and Tails' personalities and thoughts and feelings mixed with their memories and the chaos emerald Eggman so carelessly paid no attention to. It's not my fault he ignored you when you were trying to warn him, nor is it my fault I tried to take you both with me when I caused that little explosion. If anything, it's your late master's fault for being such a fucking idiot."

Metal Sonic pinned Esplouge again, digging his robotic claws deeply into Esplouge's shoulders. Esplouge winced from the sudden pain.

"How _dare_ you talk about my master that way," Metal Sonic growled. "You are nothing but a failed _monster_. You are worth _nothing_."

"Apparently your master is worth less than me, because _I'm _still alive," Esplouge sneered.

Metal Sonic punched Esplouge in the mouth as hard as he could. Esplouge yelped from the sudden pain, feeling his own blood begin to pool in his mouth.

_It tastes so bitter.... Why isn't blood sweet anymore?_

"You will die for that comment," Metal Sonic threatened, raising his claws, ready to puncture holes into Esplouge's chest and lungs.

Esplouge spat his blood into Metal Sonic's eyes, blinding the robot. Metal Sonic couldn't see through the blood, nor could he wipe it off. All he could do was scratch at the blood, creating a horrible screeching noise by dragging his claws across his eyes. Esplouge took the opportunity to get away, kicking the robot down as he made his escape.

--

Esplouge met Blaze outside of the base. Blaze immediately showed concern when he saw that Esplouge was bleeding.

"Esplouge, what...?"

"Burn it," Esplouge growled.

"What?"

Esplouge pointed behind himself angrily.

"Burn it to the fucking ground."

"But don't we need...?"

"I'll find a new base. After all, there's plenty of Eggman's old bases to choose from."

"But why...?

"Just fucking burn it!" Esplouge screamed. "I want everything in there destroyed!"

"Okay, okay," Blaze eased, holding out his palms as if to say 'calm down.'

Esplouge turned to leave but quickly turned back.

"I'd recommend you stay a safe distance away," Esplouge said.

"Why? Is there something in there?"

"Explosives."

Esplouge turned to leave again, stopping when Blaze spoke up.

"Is there any specific place for us to meet up at later?"

Esplouge thought for a moment.

"Tails' house."

--

By noon, Tails had locked himself in his room, trying to hack into the disk Esplouge had had Blaze give to him. It was a lot harder than he expected, but he was sure he would succeed. After all, Esplouge was counting on him.

_("The red emerald keeps hurting me when I go near it, and I don't know why."_

_"Can I trust you to help me?")_

The answer was yes, he could trust Tails to help him. Tails was the only person willing to help Esplouge at all, except for Blaze.

_I'm not even sure if Blaze is trustworthy. After all, even Esplouge thinks he's shady._

That was true, at least in Tails' mind. If even Esplouge didn't trust someone....

But then again, Esplouge certainly wouldn't trust Shadow or Sonic or Knuckles, and with good reason. If Esplouge were to confide anything to them or let down his defenses, all three of them would take the opportunity to kill him. Heck, by now, even Amy would probably kill him, and Amy wasn't usually the murderous type.

But Sonic and Shadow had told him how Esplouge hurt Amy. How when Esplouge and Shadow first met, Esplouge tried to kidnap Amy and ended up hurting her in the process. She managed to escape of course, but that meeting alone had left Amy terrified. And there was the recent occurrence of Esplouge cutting deeply into Amy's face with a shard of broken glass, followed by burning down her entire apartment complex.

_Amy's lucky Knuckles trusts her enough to let her stay on Angel Island with him..._

After finding out Tails was back home, everyone had stopped searching and returned to their own homes. Most of them promised to visit sometime today, but Tails hoped they wouldn't. After all, what if Esplouge came back? He'd be outnumbered, and Tails couldn't protect him from everyone. Or protect everyone from him, for that matter.

Tails flinched when he heard the door open and was relieved to see Sonic standing in the doorway.

_For a second there, I thought it was..._

"Hey, Tails," Sonic greeted, keeping his voice quiet. "Have you gotten into that disk yet?"

"Not yet. But Esplouge didn't want you or Shadow to know about it, so... I don't really feel comfortable with either of you knowing what's on it. At least until I find out what's on there."

"You are going to let us know if there's anything we could defeat Esplouge with, aren't you?"

_Defeat_. Tails was beginning to loathe the fact that Sonic was using that word as a poor replacement for _kill_. Sonic and the others would _kill _Esplouge at their first opportunity. They didn't concern themselves with Esplouge's safety, not even Sonic. It surprised Tails how much hatred Sonic felt toward Esplouge. He knew without a shred of doubt that Esplouge was the only person in the world, perhaps in the entire universe, that Sonic would have no problem killing.

_I don't want you to hurt him, though._

Tails couldn't explain his concern for Esplouge, but it was certainly there. There was no reason for him to care about Esplouge. After all, Esplouge had done some pretty horrible things to him. But something inside him just _knew _that Esplouge wasn't all bad.

_He's shown concern for me before, even if it was always after he hurt me._

Tails thought about the scars on his back, leftover from when Esplouge had cut him when he tried to escape.

_But I deserved it. I threatened him, I snuck up on him and held that stupid glass to his throat. He had every right to defend himself._

That wasn't entirely true, Tails realized. If Esplouge hadn't kidnapped him in the first place...

But why did Esplouge keep kidnapping him? Esplouge had to know by now what he was up against, especially seeing as he knew all of Tails and Shadow's weaknesses. Heck, he probably knew Sonic's as well, but that hadn't been too apparant.

Still, why would Esplouge kidnap him in the first place? It obviously wasn't because he wanted Tails around after all; Esplouge generally got sick of Tails' voice after a short time. So why did Esplouge always kidnap him?

"Tails?"

Hearing Sonic's voice brought Tails back to reality. Tails' attention immediately turned back to the computer and trying to hack into Eggman's disk. It was surprisingly difficult, Tails realized. Anything else of Eggman's would have been a breeze, but for some reason Eggman seemed to want to keep Esplouge a secret.

"You're going to help us, right?" Sonic asked again.

Tails was silent. He didn't want to help them kill Esplouge, but it was getting closer to the point where he just had to give up. He just couldn't take any more of whatever Esplouge wanted to do to him. He couldn't take any more of the kidnappings, the beatings, the cuts, the screaming...

But at the same time, he couldn't forget the feeling of warmth that washed over him the moment Esplouge started acting more normal. Like when Esplouge would speak to him calmly, or when he showed concern and remorse for something he had done.

Or when he cried.

"I'm going to hack into this disk, find out what's on it, and go from there," Tails finally said, his voice flat. "If there's something on here that's important for you to know, I'll let you know. Other than that, this really isn't any of your business."

Sonic opened his mouth to protest, to state for the millionth time that he and everybody else was just looking out for Tails' best interest, but he decided not to. He merely shrugged and walked out of the room, leaving Tails to his work.

--

Sonic walked down the stairs, trying to think of something, anything he could tell Tails to convince him not to help Esplouge.

_But Tails just won't listen._

He was met with the sight of Shadow, resting comfortably on the living room couch. It surprised him that Shadow hadn't left yet, but then again, he wanted to protect Tails as much as Sonic did. Or maybe he just wanted to be nearby in case Esplouge came back so he could finally kill the deranged fox. Either explanation seemed logical.

"Did he tell you anything?" Shadow asked, not even bothering to open his tired eyes.

"He hasn't even gotten into the disk yet," Sonic explained. "I'm a little shocked Eggman would put so much security on something we didn't even know was his."

"That was probably his intent. Esplouge was built to kill the two of us along with anyone else who could get in Eggman's way. He was intended to be Eggman's most powerful weapon, but something went wrong with him."

"How on earth do you know all of that?" Sonic asked, sitting down on the couch next to Shadow. The darker hedgehog didn't seem to notice.

"I actually _listen _when Esplouge talks," Shadow answered. "I only attack him when he's vulnerable or when he's attacking me. But if he's going to talk and tell us anything of importance, at least _one_ of us should listen. We could always find a way to use the things he reveals about himself against him later."

"Yeah, but you don't have Tails on your mind," Sonic said, sighing. Why would Tails care so much about Esplouge if he hurt him? It just didn't make sense.

"I do have Tails on my mind every time I see Esplouge. They look a lot alike," Shadow explained. "It's just that I actually know when to attack and when not to. I guess weapons can read other weapons."

"What do you mean by that?"

"You always seem surprised when Esplouge attacks," Shadow pointed out. "But he never... I don't know. He rarely surprises me."

_Except when he bludgeoned me with that stupid book..._

Shadow self consciously touched the back of his head where Esplouge had beaten him. It still hurt, although that wasn't too surprising. It had barely been a full day since that had happened.

_("I hate you! I hate you, I hate you, __**I fucking hate you BURN IN HELL!!**__")_

Esplouge's voice still rang in Shadow's ears, telling him how much he hated him. Over and over and over. That horrible little monster's voice seemed to loop in his mind with no end in sight.

_("Any... Anything but that... I'll take anything but that... Cut me, beat me, burn me, I don't even care... Just don't...")_

How was it that Esplouge could sound so strong at times, but at other times sound so weak?

"What exactly does that chaos emerald do to him when it gets near him?" Shadow asked no one in particular. "I know it hurts him, but..."

"What does it do to hurt him?" Sonic asked. "Apparantly you've seen it before."

"When the emerald gets close to him, he starts... writhing. As if he's burning," Shadow explained. "He also started spitting up blood."

"That's... weird. Is it only the red emerald?"

Shadow shrugged. "I guess so."

"But why would it only be that one? All of the other emeralds seem to make him stronger, so why would that one hurt him so badly?"

Shadow shrugged again. "Hell if I know."

--

Blaze watched Esplouge's previous base as it burst into flame, making sure to stay a safe distance away as Esplouge had suggested. Esplouge hadn't been lying about the explosives; if Blaze would have been any closer to the base, he would have easily been thrown back at the very least.

_Why on earth would he keep explosives? I thought he liked to be more... intimate with his victims._

He also wondered where the explosives had been kept in the first place. After all, they would have been set off had Blaze gotten near them, but to his knowledge, he had been in almost every room at least once. How was it that the explosives hadn't been set off?

Blaze found himself suddenly unable to think, completely mesmerized by the flames.

_I wonder what Esplouge would look like if I burned him..._

The thought was random and fleeting, but it ended up sticking in his mind. If he were to find the red chaos emerald again and get it near Esplouge, he could practically watch Esplouge burn without fire...

_No. I'm his ally. Hurting him would be..._

It would be wrong to hurt Esplouge, but the little brat deserved it, in Blaze's mind. After all, Esplouge hardly ever treated him with any respect.

_Besides, I don't even know where that emerald is._

His thoughts slowed down in favor of watching the dancing flames. Blaze couldn't help but smile at the sight. The explosion had only made it better, spreading the fire out in an inferno.

Spectacular. The flames were simply _spectacular_.


	17. Questionable Loyalty

When Esplouge had gotten a fair distance away from his burning base, he found himself confused as to where he should go. Of course he wanted to get to Tails' house as quickly as possible, but he couldn't do that in broad daylight. Someone was bound to see him, and if Sonic or Shadow saw him...

_But I need to see him. I have to find out what's on that disk._

But he had to wonder; would that disk be able to explain what had gone wrong with him? Or more importantly, would it be able to explain how to fix it?

_Do I even want to be fixed?_

He had gotten so used to being himself, how would he manage being a different person if he were able to be fixed? Would he still think the way he currently did? Would he do the same kinds of things as he did now, or would fixing one little thing completely change him?

_How much of my personality did I get from the red chaos emerald?_

He assumed that most of his personality had to have come from the gem. After all, neither Tails nor Shadow were nearly as sadistic and cruel as Esplouge was. Neither of them liked blood, neither of them refused to sleep or eat, neither of them...

_Neither of them is as screwed up as I am._

He stood there for a moment in thought.

_How can I make sure I continue being me? How can I make sure Tails never leaves me again?_

Two very easy questions to answer. He would continue being entirely himself as long as he stopped Tails and the others from seeing the information on the disk he had given them.

_And Tails will never leave me again if he's dead. I have to kill him._

Esplouge smirked. He had actually been planning this for a long time, but now he felt he was ready.

He was finally going to kill Tails.

--

It wasn't too long after his conversation with Sonic that Tails finally got into the disk. Every scrap of information about Esplouge was on the screen in front of him.

"Where do I start?" Tails asked himself. "There's so much..."

He heard the door open and jumped, surprised. He looked to Sonic who was standing in the doorway.

"H- hi, Sonic."

"Hey, Tails. Are you almost done with that disk?"

"Uh... Not quite yet," Tails lied, happy that his computer screen was too small to see from the other side of the room. "Why were you wondering?"

"Amy's here to see you."

"She... is?"

"Yeah. Don't you remember me telling you she was going to come by today?"

"N- no. Uh... I'll be down in a minute."

Sonic nodded and left. Tails waited a moment before turning off the computer monitor and darting out of his room and down the stairs. He froze when he saw the scars on Amy's face.

_Those are all my fault... She got those because she was trying to help _me_..._

"Hey, Tails," Amy greeted softly. "How are you feeling?"

_I feel like an unwilling assistant to assault... Esplouge did that to her because of me._

"I'm... uh... f- fine, I guess."

_I've caused everyone so much trouble..._

"How are _you_ feeling, Amy?"

Amy almost seemed confused by the question.

"Esplouge didn't really do all that much to me, Tails. The scars will heal over time."

"B- but he still hurt you..."

In a moment, Amy was hugging Tails. Tails was too confused to return the hug.

"I'm fine," Amy persisted. "What I went through was only a few minutes long. Esplouge had you for a little more than a few minutes."

"But... It's my fault he did that to you..." Tails mumbled, barely loud enough for Amy or Sonic to hear him.

"What do you mean?" Sonic asked, shocked. "It's not like you _told_ him to..."

"But he wouldn't have gone near her if she wasn't trying to help me!" Tails cried. "She... If she had just... not done anything, then he wouldn't have...!"

"Tails, not all of Esplouge's targets have anything to do with you," Sonic explained. "He killed Cream. He didn't even know you knew her."

"C- Cream...? He... He told me about her. He..."

Tails broke down into tears. Amy continued to try comforting him, but it only made him feel worse.

_What the hell's wrong with him, why is he doing this to me, why is he trying to kill my friends, what did I ever do to deserve this?!_

Tails was clinging to Amy as if that would stop her from being Esplouge's next victim. As if having her near him would somehow keep her safe from harm.

"Tails, it's going to be okay," Amy consoled. "It's going to be okay."

_Why does Esplouge keep doing these things to me?! Why does he make me care about him?!_

"I don't know what to do," Tails sobbed. "Sonic, tell me what to do!"

"I'm not sure how to answer that," Sonic admitted. Tails stared at him, perplexed, so he continued. "No one can tell you what you should and shouldn't do. You have to make a decision for yourself. What do _you_ want to do?"

"I... I don't know..."

"Well, what do you want to have happen to Esplouge?" Sonic asked. "If you could decide everything, what would you want to happen to Esplouge?"

"I... I want him to be... less evil," Tails said. "I want him to... I want to fix him. So he stops hurting you guys. And me. I want..."

_I want him to be friendly. I want him to be my friend._

"If any of that was possible," Sonic continued, "then you know I'd be behind you one hundred per cent. But you know it's probably impossible to fix him. We have to kill him."

"B- but...!"

_I care so much about him. I can't let you kill him!_

"I'm sorry, Tails, but Sonic's right," Shadow said, just now entering the room. "We'd need Eggman to fix him, but that's not exactly going to work..."

"But what about me?" Tails asked. "I'm smart, I could figure out what's wrong with him, and...!"

"You'd need to hack into that disk first," Shadow cut in. "And then we'll have to go from there. Just know it's not going to be very likely for us to find an alternative to killing him. He's just too dangerous."

Tails nodded reluctantly.

"I... I'd like to go back to the disk now, if that's alright with you guys," Tails explained sadly. "Thanks for coming by, Amy."

Before anyone else could respond, Tails was up the stairs and in his room. He was determined to keep Esplouge alive.

--

After watching Esplouge's base burst into flames and eventually burn itself out, Blaze headed toward Tails' house.

_What the hell is Esplouge thinking? Didn't it occur to him that Tails' friends are going to be there to protect him?_

He thought about how satisfying it would be to finally put Esplouge in his place. To finally see that bratty little kid showing him some respect.

_I could join Tails' friends instead. After all, I'm basically on their side._

That, and he wanted an excuse to set Esplouge on fire. It would be perfectly acceptable if everyone thought it was to defend Tails.

--

Not too long later, Blaze arrived at Tails' house, greeted by both Sonic and Shadow. Neither Sonic nor Shadow seemed very pleased to see Blaze, although that was to be expected.

"What do you want?" Sonic asked bluntly.

"Esplouge said he'd be here," Blaze explained. "I wanted to make sure he didn't hurt the kid."

"Oh really?" Shadow asked, distrusting. "And why is that?"

"Yeah, why would you care about Tails if you're on Esplouge's side?" Sonic continued.

"Do you have _any_idea what kind of inhuman crap Esplouge does to that kid?" Blaze asked. "It's... Disgusting, to say the least. It's disgusting that he would do those kinds of things to _anyone_, much less a _child_."

It took a moment before anyone spoke.

"So, when'd he say he was going to be here?" Sonic asked.

"I'm not sure," Blaze admitted. "Although I think it'd be safe to assume it'd be at night."

--

It was nearing midnight.

Tails hadn't gotten up from the chair in front of his computer since Amy had come to see him. He wasn't even aware that Blaze was there. He was so determined to figure out how to fix Esplouge, he forgot about trivial things such as eating and sleeping. Esplouge was more important to him than a good nights sleep.

He had learned a lot about Esplouge in the last few hours. It amazed him when he realized how much data was on this one little disk.

_But I still haven't found anything about the red chaos emerald..._

Tails yawned reluctantly. He wasn't willing to go to sleep before he could have some kind of idea why the red chaos emerald would hurt Esplouge.

_I need to focus. Esplouge's counting on..._

"Having fun?"

Tails froze upon hearing Esplouge's voice.

_Please say I just imagined that, please.._.

"Did you figure out what's _wrong _with me?" Esplouge persisted.

Tails timidly turned to face Esplouge.

"Uh... N- not yet. I'm sorry, there's just so much on this, and...!"

Esplouge smiled darkly. It unnerved Tails more than it ever had before. Esplouge seemed so calm for some reason.

"Uh... How did you get in here?" Tails asked.

Esplouge gestured toward the open window.

"I climbed. I figured it'd be easier than killing all of your friends after walking in though the front door."

"O- oh..."

They waited in silence for a moment.

"Do you want to know what's on the disk?" Tails asked. "There's a whole lot..."

"I don't care about that stupid thing right now."

"You... What?"

_But I thought you..._

"You heard me, Miles," Esplouge said darkly. He spun Tails back around, forcing him to look at the computer screen. "None of that matters to me anymore."

"I... Don't understand..."

"You don't understand?" Esplouge asked, resting his clawed hands on Tails' shoulders. "I don't need all of this crap. Facts and data..."

"But didn't you want me to help you...?"

"Yes, I wanted you to fix whatever was causing the emerald, _my_ emerald, to hurt me. But I'm over that now."

"You're... Over it? Just like that?"

"Yes. I don't care about that stupid thing anymore. I think prolonged exposure to it might kill me someday, for good, but I'm willing to accept that as long as certain... _conditions_ have been met before hand."

"Wh- what conditions?" Tails asked, tensing up. He was beginning to notice a strange smell coming from Esplouge's gloves.

_Sleeping...?_

Esplouge covered Tails' mouth and nose, forcing him to inhale the sleep inducing drug he had previously drowned his gloves in. Tails tried to scream, tried to struggle, but quickly found himself unconscious. Esplouge smirked as he scooped up Tails' limp body.

"I'm finally going to kill you, Tails."


	18. Finale

A/N: I know it's unusual for me to do author's notes past the first chapter, but I feel this particular chapter warrents it. As the chapter title ("Finale") suggests, this is the final chapter of this particular fic. However, if you truly enjoyed this fic, I am planning on making a sequel.

This fic was a joy to write, and I want to thank everyone who's read it. Especially those who have reviewed.

--

_I want to kill him._

_No, shut up. I don't want to..._

_I want to kill him now._

_But what if... I don't think I'm ready to kill Tails yet. I'm just not ready._

_Yes I am._

_No, I'm not._

It had been around an hour since Esplouge had drugged and kidnapped Tails. He had broken his usual pattern and chose to hole up in a place that was unfamiliar to him. It was just some old building near the ocean, but it seemed deserted enough. The general atmosphere was spooky, although Esplouge would not have chosen that particular word. Eerie, perhaps. A blanket of fog hung around in the air and there was no one nearby, so it suited him perfectly.

_I am ready to kill him._

_No I am not._

Esplouge looked to Tails thoughtfully, watching his small chest rise and fall slowly with his breathing. He had been having this internal battle with himself since the initial thought had crossed his mind. Would he kill Tails, or would he let him live?

_I've been planning this for a long time, anyway..._

_But that doesn't mean that now's the time!_

_But I already know the fucking details! Right down to the very last second!_

It was true, he had been planning on killing Tails for a long time. He had it all panned out; he cut Tails over and over, wait for Tails to scream with agony, practically _begging_ him to end it, then he'd gouge out Tails' heart. He would then place the heart in a jar and carry it around with him. That way Tails would be with him forever, whether he liked it or not.

_But he looks so peaceful..._

For as long as Esplouge could remember, his life had never exactly been calm. His thought raced, he attacked people, they almost always fought back, his entire line of thinking was disorganised, he couldn't sleep or even relax... But Tails could sleep, and watching Tails sleep was almost relaxing. He looked so calm and peaceful when he slept, as long as he wasn't having a nightmare.

_I'm going to kill him sooner or later anyway. It might as well be now, so I can get it over with._

_But he looks so peaceful..._

He wished Tails would just wake up. Maybe that would help him decide what to do.

--

The phone in Tails' house rang loudly, waking up the three sleeping hedgehogs immediately. Sonic, Shadow, and Blaze practically raced for the phone, thinking that Tails was still in the house and trying to sleep. Sonic got to the phone first and held it to his ear groggily, too tired to gloat about being the fastest hedgehog alive.

"Do you have _any_ idea what time it is?" Sonic asked rudely.

_Who on earth calls past midnight?_

"Are you aware that Esplouge has Tails?" Rouge asked from the other line.

Rouge's words took a moment to sink in, but when they finally did, Sonic felt his blood run cold.

"You're lying. You... You're lying, there's no way..."

"Go look for him if you don't believe me. I saw Esplouge with him..."

"Who is it?" Shadow asked, concerned by Sonic's grave expression.

Sonic ignored Shadow and ran up the stairs to Tails' room. He dropped the phone in the process, so Shadow took it upon himself to pick it up.

"Hello?" Shadow asked.

"Shadow?" Rouge asked. "What are you doing at Tails'...?"

They were interrupted by the sound of Sonic screaming. Blaze dashed up the stairs, unsure of what was happening and wanting to be there in case he was needed. Shadow flinched and nearly dropped the phone.

"Rouge, what the hell's going on?!" Shadow questioned, sounding agitated.

Blaze darted partway down the stairs, stopping near the middle of the staircase.

"Tails is gone," Blaze explained.

"What?!"

"Esplouge has Tails," Rouge explained. "Now do you guys want to know where I saw them or not?"

--

"I don't want to kill him!"

"Yes I do!"

Tails could feel the world coming back into focus almost too quickly. He could hear Esplouge arguing with himself out loud. It was odd, even for Esplouge.

_What is he even arguing about?_

_My head feels like it's going to explode._

As the world around him began to clear up, Tails began to realize that he wasn't in his home. He was in some abandoned looking building. It was dark, although not too dark to see fairly well.

"Oh, he's awake."

Tails flinched at Esplouge's voice, feeling the "fight or flight" response kicking in. He tried to sit up and managed with some difficulty.

"Esplouge...?" Tails asked slowly, still a bit hazy from whatever Esplouge had drugged him with. "Where are we...?"

Esplouge grinned darkly, unnerving Tails more than usual.

"Oh, we're far enough away that any scream you make won't be heard. Is that a good enough description for you?"

Tails just stared at Esplouge, dizzy, frightened, and confused. Esplouge pinned Tails to the floor and held a large shard of glass to his throat.

"Did I ever tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

"Did I ever tell you how I was going to kill you?"

Esplouge cut lightly into Tails' cheek, just enough for him to bleed. Tails shuddered.

"Did I tell you that I was going to cut you up and then rip out your heart? Did I ever discuss that with you, Miles?"

"Wh- what?"

Esplouge cut Tails' other cheek, digging the glass in a little deeper.

"And after that, after I cut out your heart, I'm going to keep it in a little jar so you can be with me wherever I go. Isn't that romantic, Tails? It's kind of like you're giving me a Valentine, except I'm taking it from you whether you like it or not."

_But Valentines Day isn't for another few months..._

"Esplouge... I don't... You got mad at me when I asked if you'd kill me, remember? You slapped me over and over and screamed at me so loudly, I thought my head would explode. You don't want to kill me. Why are you all of a sudden saying that you want to kill me?"

"All of a sudden?" Esplouge asked. "I've been planning this for a long time. I just never thought I'd get around to it."

"Y- You made it sound like you _have_ to kill me. You don't have to kill me. You don't want to, either."

"_Shut up!_"

Esplouge slapped Tails, seeming to forget that he could just as easily have cut him.

"I _do_ want to kill you! I hate you and I want you to die!"

"Then why did you wait so long?" Tails asked. "And why were you arguing with yourself about it when I woke up? And you mentioned Valentines Day, which suggests..."

Tails was slapped again. His eyes began to tear up.

"_I don't fucking love you!_" Esplouge screamed. "_How dare you even think that, you little bastard!_"

"I didn't mean that," Tails said, his voice softening up as he tried not to cry. "I just meant that... Well, you called me your friend earlier, didn't you? Friends give each other things on Valentines Day."

"When the fuck did I call you my friend?"

"When you came to my house to ask me to hack into that disc, remember? You called me your friend, and..."

"I remember that," Esplouge said, seeming to calm down a little. "You were... And... I don't know."

"Esplouge, friends don't kill friends."

"But I'm different! I'm...! I'm so fucked up, you wouldn't _believe_ some of the thoughts I get in my head!"

Tails touched Esplouge's palm timidly, expecting to have his hand cut off or slapped away. Esplouge looked at Tails, puzzled.

"We're not that different," Tails explained. "See? We have the same hands. We both have two tails. And we both like mint candy, you said that earlier, right?"

"But I'm a _psycho_."

"So was Eggman," Tails pointed out. "Even Shadow acted a little crazy, remember?"

"When he tried to kill everyone? Yeah, I remember that. I... How did you know I would remember?"

"You seem to know a lot about Shadow. And me."

"Yeah..."

Esplouge pulled his hand away from Tails'.

"Hey... Uh... Do you... This is going to sound completely off topic, but..."

Esplouge wasn't sure what to say next or how to phrase his question. He just looked at the ground by Tails' shoulder as if he was being torn up inside.

"What?"

"Do you still think about what happened to your parents?" Esplouge asked. He waited for a moment before continuing. "Blaze and I were talking and he... mentioned something kind of similar... so I just wanted to know. Do you still get the nightmares?"

"How do you know about that?" Tails asked, on the verge of crying.

"I have your memories. And Shadow's. Your memories tend to go through my mind a lot, especially when I sleep. But can you answer my question? Do you still think about it?"

"Every day," Tails answered. He finally broke into a sobbing fit and Esplouge finally allowed him to sit up. "I should have done something, _I should have done something...!_"

"Hush," Esplouge ordered, pulling Tails into an awkward hug. "It wasn't your fault. Stop blaming yourself."

"But I could have done something, I really...!"

"Unless you could have seen into the future, which we _both_ know you can't do, there was really nothing..."

Esplouge let go of Tails.

"I'm sorry for bringing it up. I should have known you'd react like that."

Tails just stared at him.

"Maybe I'm not ready to kill you. I mean, I still care about you I guess. I like hearing you speak, even though I complain about your voice. You really are pleasant to listen to. And you're the only person that treats me like a person and not a monster. Well, most of the time anyway..."

Tails' focus drifted to the door way to the building they were in. Esplouge looked as well, wondering what Tails was looking at and froze.

Metal Sonic was staring back at him.

"W- what the...? How many times are you going to come back, you stupid robot?!"

Metal Sonic didn't respond. Esplouge began to feel uneasy.

"Uh... Hello?"

Metal Sonic suddenly lashed out and grabbed Tails, dragging him a fair distance away from Esplouge. Tails shrieked, not knowing what was going on, and Esplouge was tempted to join him.

"What the fuck are you doing?!" Esplouge screamed.

"My master would want revenge," Metal Sonic explained, holding Tails' throat threateningly with one of his clawed hands. "You killed him. You took away the only person I cared about. Now I'm going to do the same to you."

"No you won't!" Esplouge screamed. "Tails never did anything to you or your stupid master!"

Metal Sonic grabbed Tails' throat as if he was about to twist it off. Both of the foxes flinched.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry... Please, don't hurt him. Tails has never done anything to you or your master. He's completely innocent, you don't really want to hurt him."

"An eye for an eye. You killed something precious to me, so I will do the same to you."

"But you want revenge for your master, correct?" Esplouge asked. "You... You said it yourself. _I_killed him. Eggman would want revenge on _me_for killing him. I betrayed him by trying to kill him shortly after I woke up for the first time, and then I succeeded later. No one else was involved in the betrayal."

"Are you aware that you are asking me to kill you instead of the boy?" Metal Sonic asked.

"Yes, I am aware of it. I'm not willing to let Tails die because _I_ messed up."

"You will take his place?" Metal Sonic asked.

"Yes. If you don't harm him, I will take his place."

Metal Sonic paused for a moment before letting Tails go. Tails ran to Esplouge as if he were a child running to a parent for comfort.

"Esplouge, why are you...?!"

Tails and Esplouge hugged for a moment, both wanting comfort from the other. Esplouge looked to Metal Sonic.

"Can I have a moment with him?" Esplouge asked. "Just a moment?"

Metal Sonic nodded.

"Tails, I lied earlier. I'm about to die anyway, so I might as well..."

Esplouge was cut off by Metal Sonic's claws digging violently into his back. Tails screamed, completely horrified.

"_Why did you do that, he said he needed a moment, he hadn't even finished talking, you...!_"

Metal Sonic looked to the blood on his claws triumphantly.

"He said 'a moment'. He never specified how long 'a moment' was to be."

Tails watched Metal Sonic leave, pushing his way through the small crowd that was gathered in the door way. The small crowd rushed in, revealing it to be Sonic and Blaze and everyone else. Even Arcane was there.

"Tails, what...?" Sonic began.

Tails grabbed one of Esplouge's wrists, praying that he would feel a pulse. He was disappointed.

"He was going to tell me something..." Tails muttered.

"Don't worry about it," Sonic said. "It was probably another stupid death threat..."

"_He gave up his life for me!_" Tails screamed. He was crying and shaking. "The least you can do is be grateful!"

"Jeez, calm down. Look, we should probably go home. You really should get some rest..."

"But..."

"If it'll make you feel better, we'll bury Esplouge tomorrow. Would you like that?" Sonic asked.

Tails nodded without saying another word. He let Sonic lead him home and went to sleep in his own bed without a word. He woke up fairly late the next morning to some shocking news.

Esplouge's corpse had vanished.


End file.
